Scott Sexton of the Winston-Salem Journal raises a noteworthy point about Michael Decker being more deserving of leniency than Jim Black.
Black?s lawyer has recently called for him either to be released early (his scheduled release date is 2012) or be moved to a prison closer to home. But Sexton points out that Decker, who was sentenced in 2007 for accepting a bribe, appears to have been more cooperative with investigators, helping to unearth more corruption in state government:
Just before Decker’s sentencing in April 2007, federal prosecutors asked Judge James C. Dever III to cut by half any prison time that Decker might face because the help he provided was the “critical turning point” in making a case against Black. Decker, you probably remember, admitted that in late 2002 and early 2003, he solicited $50,000 to support Black’s bid to remain co-speaker of the House.
Black has maintained that the money was not part of any quid pro quo. Yet he agreed to the plea bargain that sent him to federal prison in Lewisburg, Pa., for 63 months. Once a weasel, always a weasel.
“Decker substantially assisted in federal and state investigations and prosecutions of public corruption in regard to the North Carolina House of Representatives,” wrote Dennis Duffy and John Stuart Bruce, the assistant U.S. attorneys who did much of the heavy lifting in that case.
That “substantial assistance” court filing still languishes somewhere in a federal building in Raleigh. The only insights that Bruce offered when reached in his office Tuesday was to acknowledge the obvious.
“It has not been ruled on by the court,” he said.
The funny thing about the situation is that federal prosecutors rely on cooperation to strengthen their cases and win convictions, so you would think that rewarding that cooperation would be standard, especially if it leads to landing bigger, more corrupt fish.
Surely, potential witnesses in the investigation of former Gov. Mike Easley have noticed that Decker has received nothing.
To read Carolina Journal‘s coverage of some questions surrounding how Jim Black paid the last half of a court-ordered $1 million fine, click here, here, and here.
