GOVERNMENT TO FIGHT FOR PLEA BARGAINS

It Challenges Appeals-Court Decision Outlawing Prosecution Tool

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department said Thursday that it would appeal a
Colorado appeals-court ruling that prohibits prosecutors from obtaining
witnesses' testimony with promises of leniency, a ruling that could
jeopardize criminal cases nationwide.

Government officials believe the decision by Denver's 10th Circuit Court of
Appeals undermines a tactic used commonly by prosecutors, and that it might
threaten recent convictions won by plea agreements, including the Oklahoma
City bombing cases.

``If the decision is read very, very broadly,'' said Deputy Attorney
General Eric Holder, ``it could have a very wide-ranging impact.''

In last week's ruling, a three-judge panel said plea negotiating was akin
to bribery, and ordered a new trial for a woman accused in a drug
conspiracy case.

``Promising something of value to secure truthful testimony is as much
prohibited as buying perjured testimony,'' the panel ruled.

``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.''

A different panel of the same court is considering the appeal of Timothy
McVeigh, who was sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing.

During McVeigh's trial and the trial of his partner, Terry Nichols,
prosecutors relied on the testimony of Michael Fortier, a co-defendant.

Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison after he outlined McVeigh's
plan to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The blast killed 168
people.

Joseph Hartzler, chief prosecutor against McVeigh, said Thursday that he
believed that the conviction against McVeigh would stand because defense
lawyers did not raise objections to the plea agreement in earlier appeals.

McVeigh's attorneys could not be reached for comment, but former federal
prosecutor Ronald Woods, who helped represent Nichols, said: ``This
decision is a topic of conversation in every U.S. attorney's office across
the country.''

Nichols was sentenced to life in prison last month. His appeal has yet to
be filed.

The Justice Department is asking the nation's U.S. attorney's offices to
notify Washington of an expected flood of requests from defense attorneys
across the country seeking to have their clients'
convictions overturned.

``It goes to the way in which prosecutors at the federal, state, and local
levels have conducted themselves for a good number of years,'' Holder said.

Holder, the former U.S. attorney in Washington, also defended the
prosecutor's art of deal-making with criminals. ``Any responsible
prosecutor always tries to substantiate (what) any witness for the
government is going to be saying,'' he said. ``And especially . . . in
instances where the testimony is elicited after some kind of a deal is
struck.''