PLEA-BARGAIN RULING REVERSED

It's Not Bribery, Federal Panel Says

DENVER (AP) -- A 12-member panel of federal judges has overturned an
appeals-court decision that stunned the U.S. Department of Justice,
ruling Friday that it is not bribery to offer a plea bargain in
exchange for testimony.

The panel reversed an earlier decision by three judges on the 10th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who overturned the Kansas conviction of
Sonya Singleton on charges of cocaine trafficking and money
laundering. The three judges said the chief prosecution witness
illegally received leniency in exchange for his testimony.

The decision shocked the Justice Department, which said the ruling
could affect a number of prominent convictions, including those of
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in the Oklahoma City bombing.
McVeigh and Nichols were convicted in federal court in Denver after
Michael Fortier struck a deal and testified against his former friends
about their plans to carry out the bombing.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in July temporarily withdrew
the ban pending a hearing.

U.S. attorneys argued that to use anti-bribery statutes passed by
Congress to bar deals in exchange for testimony "would not only be a
radical departure from the ingrained legal culture of our criminal
justice system, but would also result in criminalizing historic
practice and established law."

The panel, in a decision written by Judge John Porfilio, said that if
Congress had intended to overturn the accepted practice, "it would
have done so in clear, unmistakable and unarguable language."

Officials are pleased

The reversal pleased Justice Department officials.

"It's a great day for federal prosecutors across this nation," said
Linda McMahan, U.S. attorney for Colorado.

The panel said its ruling would not protect a prosecutor who procures
false testimony, but said that would be covered by other laws.

The three judges in the appeals court ruled that plea bargains, which
have been common practice for years, fall under a federal law against
bribing witnesses.

"If justice is perverted when a criminal defendant seeks to buy
testimony from a witness, it is no less perverted when the government
does so," Judge Paul J. Kelley Jr. said.

Agreeing were David M. Ebel and Chief Judge Stephanie K. Seymour. All
three also sat on the 12-member panel hearing the case en banc.

The three judges ordered a new trial for Singleton. They said the
chief prosecution witness illegally received leniency in exchange for
his testimony.

The three judges, who handle cases from Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma,
New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, said Congress should rewrite the law if
legislators believe prosecutors should be exempt.

Wasn't expected to stand

Lawyers scrambled to delay other cases affected by the ruling, but
most did not expect it to stand. If the full 10th Circuit Court did
not overturn it, they said Congress would probably amend the law.

Judge Robert Henry, one of the 12 judges who overturned the ruling,
said the problem could arise again.

He said a new law passed by Congress makes government attorneys
subject to state ethical rules.

But Henry said applying bribery laws to plea bargains would be "a
legal absurdity."

"I simply do not believe that congressional intent could have been to
criminalize the widespread and common practice of government lawyers,"
he wrote in a concurring opinion.