COLO. COURT UPHOLDS PLEA BARGAINS

DENVER (AP) An appeals court ruled Friday that prosecutors can offer plea
bargains in exchange for testimony, overturning a court decision that
declared the practice illegal.

The decision last summer by a three-member panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals had shocked the Justice Department. That ruling took issue
with the moral and legal underpinning of immunity deals which critics
describe as a form of bribery and essentially would make criminals of
federal prosecutors who offer them.

The ruling was put on hold until the full Denver-based appeals court could
decide. In its majority opinion Friday, a 12-member panel wrote that if
Congress had intended to overturn the accepted practice, "it would have
done so in clear, unmistakable and unarguable language."

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 three judges who made the earlier ruling also sat on the 12-member
panel and dissented in Friday's reversal.

The case centered on 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, violating federal law against bribery 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," said
Judge Paul J. Kelley Jr.

The Justice Department said the practice is common, noting that Timothy
McVeigh and Terry Nichols were convicted in the Oklahoma City bombing based
on testimony from a former friend who struck a deal.

The three judges had ordered a new trial for Singleton and said Congress
should rewrite anti-bribery laws if legislators believe prosecutors should
be exempt.

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 likely amend the law.