Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

plea agreement

If a person is locked up and was going to trial and the person decides to take a plea agreemnet by offering information on two other cases in exchange for a lessor sentence.

And the person gives his testimony and in preliminary hearing in one of the cases. The lawyer for that case does a motion of discovery and gives his client the letter about the plea agreement and the letter tells what the plea agreement is on his case and also on the letter is the plea agreement for the other case. But that case has nothing to do with the first

case. Should that person be allowed to know about the other plea agreement that has nothing to do with his case and be allowed to have that letter mailed out and have people make copies of the letter to post all over the city. Because he shouldn't have known about the second case. That a different case.

please reply

thank you


Asked on 9/26/06, 3:06 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Re: plea agreement

1. Have you asked your lawyer what his opinion is about your question? If not, please do so.

2. With regard to your question, based on the very limited information that you gave, my answer to your question is (a qualified) YES. However, you should rely on your attorney's advice, not mine. The attorney knows your case much better than I do.

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Answered on 9/26/06, 3:16 pm
Neil O'Brien Eaton County Special Assistant Prosecuting Attorney

Re: plea agreement

Yes, the defense attorney on case #1 has a right to know the details of the entire plea agreement that you have with the prosecutor. Why? "Witness bias" information (what are you getting in return for what you are giving may factor in to how much weight the jury gives your testimony) is "potentially exculpatory" information, and the prosecutor has an ethical duty to tell the defense about it.

So, if you are testifying against Defendant #1 as part of a plea agreement, and that agreement requires you to also give truthful testimony re: Defendant #2, both attorneys in both cases have a right to know. In fact, the prosecutor has a duty to reveal that information. Most prosecutors will be up front about that with the jury during jury selection, and bring it out of the witness during direct examination. Otherwise, if they hear about it for the first time during the defendant's cross examination it seems like the prosecutor is hiding something.

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Answered on 9/26/06, 3:20 pm


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