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Al-Arian: Promise not to Subpoena Must be Explicit in Plea Agreement

By Tim Cone

In U.S. v. Al-Arian, No. 06-16008 (Jan. 25, 2008), the Court held that when a plea agreement contains no agreement providing that a defendant is immune from a future grand jury subpoena, the plea agreement does not prevent the government from subpoenaing the defendant to testify before a grand jury.The Court first addressed whether the appeal had become moot, because the district court judgment which had held Al-Arian in contempt for failure to comply with the subpoena, and pursuant to which he had been sentenced, had since been vacated. The Court noted that any time Al-Arian had served for the contempt would be credited toward the sentence he was serving on the guilty plea if the Court held that the district court erred by holding him in contempt...continue to full post

Full post as published by Defense Newsletter Blog on January 30, 2008 (boomark / email).