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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: accountclosed who wrote (36590)	11/17/1998 6:01:00 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 132070

With respect to the use of RICO, prosecutors LOVE to charge defendants with conspiracy. For one thing,it really jacks up the potential jail time, so it makes for a more effective squeeze. For another thing, it pits the defendants against each other. But, the best reason is one you alluded to, that one defendant can be granted immunity and his testimony used to convict the other. Sometimes I have to remind myself who the bad guys are. Not really, gallows humor, but I think that prosecutors have an unfortunate tendency to become self-righteous and overzealous. Criminal defense attorneys, by and large, are more humble, because they lose most of the time.<g> CobaltBlue