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Saturday, August 20, 2005
Ind. Fed. Court - More on "U.S. District Judge Richard Young to open portions of sealed plea agreements"
Following up on an ILB entry from last Saturday, Aug. 13 is this editorial today in the Indianapolis Star:
Federal Judge Richard L. Young has correctly put the burden on federal prosecutors to show why any portion of a plea agreement with a criminal defendant should be sealed."We want our courts to be as open as they can be," Young told the Evansville Courier & Press after its lawyers moved to intervene in several cases in which defendants had reached sealed plea agreements with the U.S. attorney's office.
When criminal proceedings begin with closed grand jury proceedings and end in sealed plea agreements, most of the judicial process is hidden from public view.
As Young noted, occasionally there are compelling reasons for sealing parts of a plea agreement. Names of child abuse victims, confidential informants or potential witnesses could be divulged. Ongoing investigations also could be compromised.
Under the settlement reached among the Evansville newspaper, the U.S. attorney and Young, the public will be notified about the existence of any sealed plea agreements and given the opportunity to require prosecutors to prove that there is a compelling reason to keep it sealed. According to Young, this understanding affects only his courtroom in Evansville and not the remainder of Indiana's Southern District federal court, which includes Indianapolis.
The U.S. attorney should adopt a district-wide policy of providing public notification of plans to seal any part of a plea agreement. And judges throughout the district should insist that prosecutors prove why sealed agreements are necessary.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 20, 2005 10:16 AM
Posted to Ind Fed D.Ct. Decisions