NCJ Number
177829
Journal
ABA Journal Volume: 85 Dated: May 1999 Pages: 46-51
Date Published
1999
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the genesis, application, and disappearance of legal theories.
Abstract
The article reviews the longstanding practice of the government paying witnesses for testimony, particularly in drug-related cases, both in cash and through favorable plea bargains, when a defense lawyer would probably be disbarred and sent to prison for doing the same thing. A defense attorney attempted to use the disparity to suppress the testimony of a co-defendant who had been promised a lighter sentence by prosecutors in exchange for testimony against his client. The motion was denied, and his client was sentenced to prison. An appeals court subsequently reversed the conviction, ruling that the prosecutors’ deal was illegal. The defense attorney’s original questioning eventually formed the basis of new and very controversial law. Every circuit court since the reversal has rejected that decision, and it is unlikely that the US Supreme Court will agree to review it. Thus, the original difference between procedures allowed to the prosecution and forbidden to the defense still stands.