ASHCROFT LIMITING PROSECUTORS' USE OF PLEA BARGAINS

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 - Attorney General John Ashcroft today made it tougher
for federal prosecutors to strike plea bargains with criminal defendants,
requiring attorneys to seek the most serious charges possible in almost all
cases.

The policy directive issued by Mr. Ashcroft is the latest in a series of
steps the Justice Department has taken in recent months to combat what it
sees as dangerously lenient practices by some federal prosecutors and judges.

The move also effectively expands to the entire gamut of federal crimes the
attorney general's tough stance on the death penalty, which he has sought
in numerous cases over the objections of federal prosecutors.

"The direction I am giving our U.S. attorneys today is direct and
emphatic," Mr. Ashcroft said at a speech in Cincinnati. Except in "limited,
narrow circumstances," he said, federal prosecutors must seek to bring
charges for "the most serious, readily provable offense" that can be
supported by the facts of the case.

But critics in the defense bar and some federal prosecutors said the new
policy would serve only to further centralize authority in the hands of
Washington policymakers, discourage prosecutors from seeking plea bargains
and ratchet up sentences in criminal cases that may not warrant them.

"What is driving this," said Gerald D. Lefcourt, past president of the
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, "is that a tough-on-crime
attorney general is pandering to the public, and he knows that this will
play well."

Several federal prosecutors said they were deeply concerned about the new
policy, which was first reported in The Wall Street Journal.

A West Coast prosecutor who spoke on condition of anonymity said that while
it might be difficult for officials in Washington to enforce the new
policy, it nonetheless puts significant pressure on prosecutors to explain
their actions and will most likely result in fewer plea bargains in many
jurisdictions.

Plea bargains are a popular and powerful tool for prosecutors to secure the
cooperation of defendants and to speed cases through the system without
devoting additional time and resources to a trial. Some 96 percent of the
60,000 cases handled by federal prosecutors in 2001, the last year for
which complete figures were available, resulted in plea bargains, officials
said.

But the new policy states that prosecutors must seek the most severe
sentence allowed by law unless there are overriding considerations.

Exceptions include the "substantial assistance" of a cooperating defendant,
the drain on resources that a trial might cause and the Justice
Department's approval of a "fast-track" program used to expedite
prosecutions, like the type used in Southwest border states to prosecute
illegal immigrants.