Langston sentencing, timing spur questions
“Normally, sentencing would not take place until all the cooperation is over,” notes Dr. Ronald Rychlak, a University of Mississippi School of Law professor with criminal proceedings expertise.
“Prosecutors like to keep that threat hanging to assure cooperation through any necessary trial testimony.”
That’s assuming trials will follow.
In his guilty-plea proceedings before U.S. Chief Judge Michael P. Mills, the 53-year-old Langston swore he conspired with famed former Oxford attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, former New Albany attorney Timothy Balducci, former state Auditor Steven Patterson and former Hinds District Attorney Ed Peters to bribe DeLaughter with the promise of a federal judgeship.
In turn, Langston said, DeLaughter was to give them favorable treatment in the lawsuit Wilson v. Scruggs, which involved fees related to work on asbestos cases.
The government’s practice is well-established for holding off sentencing until it has what it needs for a case, especially trial testimony.
In a Feb. 21 motion, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert H. Norman asks for the delay until after Scruggs’ trial in another judicial bribery case – then set for March 31 – “to enable Joseph C. Langston to substantially assist the government and to provide him with an incentive to do so.”
Scruggs eventually pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe Circuit Judge Henry Lackey.
And so, the questions linger about the significance of Langston’s December sentencing date:
– Are the feds through with him?
Pretrial sentencing is unusual, observed two attorneys with ties to the case, who asked not to be identified. “But the judge can do anything he wants to do” about the timing of Langston’s sentence, one noted.
– Does that mean there won’t be any indictments, pleas or trials?
“Maybe they have decided that there will not be any trials,” Rychlak speculated.
Maybe plea agreements, like Langston’s, will make trials unnecessary or maybe investigators have decided they don’t have enough to bring anybody to trial.
– Does the current U.S. attorney, a Republican, want to seal Langston’s fate before the Democrats take over leadership of the U.S. Department of Justice?
Some observers think so, but it’s not because they think Langston might get a better deal from Democrats, despite political affinities.
NE MS Daily Journal
11/21/8
Magnolia Tribune
