Submitted by Legal eagle, Mar 24, 2007 17:33

What was the result at the fourth circuit court of appeals if al-Arian is already petitioning for certiorari to the Supreme Court? Is it really possible that the government can submit to a plea deal with a defendant that it believes knows information about suspected terrorists when non-criminal, ordinary people who have never been involved in the criminal justice system are not beyond the court's subpoena power? In other words, can the Court's subpoena power be bargained away by prosecutors? To me, it does not make sense that this was contained in the plea agreement. However, if that is how al-Arian understood it, the whole plea agreement should be invalidated on the ground that it was involuntary (since al-Arian presumably only agreed to plead guilty on the ground that he would not have to testify in the future). It seems like the promise not to force al-Arian to cooperate in further investigations only referred to prosecutorial investigation efforts. Surely, the prosecutor does not have the authority to bargain away the Court's subpoena power through a plea agreement. In any event, I am fairly sure the conservative Fourth Circuit will not see it that way.

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