Minister Justitie VS dwingt prosecutor doodstraf te eisen

[Cees Binkhorst]

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Nog meer slecht nieuws

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/nation/1760222
Ashcroft reversal may affect many death cases
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
New York Times
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. -- Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered federal
prosecutors to seek the death penalty for a murder suspect, even
though he had agreed to testify against others tied to a deadly
Colombian drug ring in exchange for a life sentence.

A Justice Department spokeswoman, while declining to comment on the
case, said the department's death penalty decisions were intended to
ensure consistency in such cases.

Lawyers said it appeared to be the first case nationally in which
Ashcroft had insisted on seeking the execution of a defendant who had
earlier secured a pledge from prosecutors to seek a life prison
sentence in exchange for information. Some lawyers said Ashcroft's
decision could hamstring federal prosecutors, shaking the confidence
of defendants that prosecutors could deliver on a proposed deal in a
death penalty case.

Ashcroft has stirred a controversy in federal prosecutors' offices
nationally in recent months by insisting that they seek the death
penalty in some cases in which they had recommended against it. Under
Justice Department rules, federal prosecutors can only recommend
whether to seek the death penalty; the final decision is up to the
attorney general.

Defense lawyers, and some current and former prosecutors, said the
case could have repercussions far beyond the death penalty in its
effect on negotiations between prosecutors and defense lawyers.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said Ashcroft's decisions in
response to the prosecutors' recommendations were intended to assure
uniformity in the application of the federal death penalty. But
critics said that his decisions were a method of importing the death
penalty to areas of the country where few or no executions have been
carried out.

In U.S. District Court here Friday, obviously chagrined federal
prosecutors acknowledged to a judge that the defendant, Jairo Zapata,
who had agreed to cooperate, would now face a trial with the
possibility of the death penalty.

"This was a surprise to all of us," Bonnie Klapper, one of the
prosecutors who had negotiated the deal, told Judge Joanna Seybert. A
defense lawyer asked that the terms of Zapata's aborted deal be filed
under seal because its disclosure could jeopardize his safety.

Prosecutors say Zapata was involved in two killings with others tied
to a drug ring in Queens. Seybert asked federal marshals to make
special security arrangements for Zapata in prison while he awaits
trial.

Other lawyers said the case could lead to major changes in federal
prosecutions across the country. Jim Walden, a former senior federal
prosecutor in Brooklyn, said it was "a remarkably bad decision" to
superimpose national death penalty policy over local federal
prosecutors' judgments about cooperating witnesses.

Barbara Comstock, the Justice Department's director of public
affairs, declined to comment on the Zapata case.

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