ASHCROFT: LIMIT PLEA BARGAINS

New Policy Will Apply to Federal Prosecutors

WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft is directing federal
prosecutors to seek maximum charges and penalties in more criminal
cases and to limit the use of plea bargains to get convictions.

"Federal prosecutors must charge and pursue the most serious, readily
provable offenses that are supported by the facts," Ashcroft said in a
memo to U.S. attorneys released yesterday. "Charges should not be
filed simply to exert leverage to get a plea."

Plea bargains still would be permitted but would be more closely tied
to defendants' actions, in particular a guarantee of cooperation in an
ongoing investigation, the memo said. Current guidelines give
prosecutors far more flexibility in determining which charges to bring
based on the facts of individual cases.

Other cases in which plea bargains are to be used include those in
which the possible maximum sentence is unaffected by the agreement,
when the chances of conviction on original charges seem less likely as
the case progresses, and on a case-by-case basis with written approval
from a supervisor.

Ashcroft, asked about the policy after a speech yesterday in
Milwaukee, said the goal is to ensure equal justice is pursued nationwide.

"It's important that when the law is broken in Milwaukee, it's
attended by the same consequences as when it's broken in Denver," he
said.

The move follows efforts by Ashcroft earlier this year to apply the
federal death penalty more broadly across the country and to require
prosecutors to appeal cases more frequently when judges hand down
sentences lighter than those in federal sentencing guidelines.

Gerald Lefcourt, past president of the National Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the directive would make the federal
justice system "inflexible and problematic" because fewer defendants
will plead guilty to harsher offenses.