NEW PLEA POLICY NOT AN ISSUE IN N.O.

Ashcroft Rule Change Draws Fire Elsewhere

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has riled a host of defense
lawyers and law professors across the nation with his recent memo
instructing federal prosecutors to tighten the reins on plea bargaining.

The policy could set off a crisis, they said, from clogging up court
dockets to handcuffing prosecutors seeking to entice defendants to
cooperate with the government.

But in the Eastern District of Louisiana, life at the federal
courthouse is not about to change, said several officials and lawyers
on both sides of the bar.

"It really doesn't affect what we're already doing," acting U.S.
Attorney Jim Letten said of his boss's new directive. "We are very
careful about how we arrive at plea bargains and what kinds of
commitments we make."

In a memo a week ago, Ashcroft announced that plea bargains will be
limited in order to secure the harshest sentences and ensure that
federal law is being applied uniformly nationwide.

The directive is not an order to avoid all plea bargains, he said last
week during a stop in New Orleans.

"We don't want to be involved with plea bargaining with people who are
not cooperating with the government," Ashcroft said. "I do believe
that by charging tough crimes . . . people facing tough sentences . .
. become more likely to be cooperative. If they cooperate, it reduces
not only the burden on courts, but it can help us prevent other
crimes" by dismantling crime rings.

In the memo, Ashcroft said: "Federal prosecutors must charge and
pursue the most serious, readily provable offense or offenses that are
supported by the facts of the case except in limited, narrow
circumstances.

"Just as the sentence a defendant receives should not depend upon
which particular judge presides over the case, so too the charges a
defendant faces should not depend upon the particular prosecutor
assigned to handle the case," the memo said.

Though the memo strictly directs the 93 U.S. attorneys on the practice
of plea bargaining, it does not tie prosecutors' hands, Letten said.

"It's logical, it's intelligent, and it gives us greater guidance than
we had before," he said. "We must not provide benefits or back off on
charges without compelling reasons."

Critics fear unfairness

Still, Ashcroft's critics include former top prosecutors, who said the
directive shows little concern for justice.

"Crimes are different, people are different," former U.S. Attorney
Mary Jo White, who worked in Manhattan for almost a decade, told The
New York Times last week. "This really goes beyond what is efficient
and fair."

The plea bargain, often used as political tool to challenge just how
tough a prosecutor is on crime, is a necessary tool in handling the
high volume of criminal cases in state and federal courts. More than
96 percent of all federal cases are resolved before trial when a
defendant pleads guilty to the original or a reduced charge, according
to the Justice Department.

And the idea that a defendant gets away with something by spilling
their guts for a reduced charge -- and a significantly lighter
sentence -- doesn't reflect reality, some courthouse veterans said.

Dane Ciolino, a defense attorney and professor at Loyola University
School of Law, said plea bargains are already rare. And they are not
exactly sweetheart deals in which defendants escape prison time.

"In federal court, you've got to work hard to get your break," Ciolino
said. "You've got to work hard and you've got to cooperate. It's rare
that a federal case is weak because they've got wiretaps, videotapes,
cooperating co-defendants. These are all things you don't see at
Tulane and Broad," the site of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.

Deals won Edwards case

However, "No one testifies for the government out of the goodness of
their heart," said former U.S. Attorney John Volz, who served in
Louisiana from 1978 to 1990.

"They have to get something in return," he said. "That is usually a
plea to a lesser charge."

Louisiana saw firsthand how plea bargains can add up to one big
conviction, Volz said, in the case of former Gov. Edwards, who is now
serving 10 years in prison for a landmark gambling corruption conviction.

"Edwin Edwards would probably not be in the penitentiary today" if it
were not for plea bargains, Volz said. "If the federal prosecutor
couldn't plea bargain at all, there would be no way that you're going
to get co-conspirator testimony."

The plea-bargaining memo arrived after an earlier instruction by
Ashcroft for prosecutors to report cases in which federal judges hand
down sentences that are more lenient than federal sentencing
guidelines advise.

Ashcroft, who has called for greater use of the federal death penalty
and credits the nation's record-high prison population for reducing
crime, may simply enjoy a little grandstanding now and then, some
attorneys said last week.

"I don't want to call his comments cosmetic," Volz said. "But that's
really what they are."