Cooperating Witness Unfairly Denied Sentence Reduction after Defendant Acquitted

An incarcerated witness in a corruption case was unfairly denied his full sentence reduction deal by the trial judge after the defendant at trial was acquitted

United States v. Harrington, 2016 BL 269404, 7th Cir., No. 15-3486, 8/19/16.

   The Seventh Circuit overruled a trial judge’s decreased sentence reduction for a cooperating witness after the defendant in the trial was acquitted. The trial judge implied that the witness did not give his best effort because he “didn’t establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the [defendant]….had committed the crimes that they were charged with,” which did not please the circuit panel. Instead of receiving a 25% sentence reduction for testifying and participating in the preparation of the trial, the witness was only given a 14% reduction by the judge.

   In its opinion, the panel expressed concern with the trial court’s decision because the acquittal may not have had any connection to the witness’s testimony. Additionally, the ruling was problematic because tying a sentence reduction to the outcome of a trial could possibly incentivize testimony that was either a lie or exaggerated.




http://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/document/United_States_v_Harrington_No_153486_2016_BL_269404_7th_Cir_Aug_1.