By District Attorney Ryan Sayers
2023 Vol. 8
This week I will wrap up the discussion as to pleas agreements and different factors that affect the outcome of a case by talking about cooperating witnesses.
In some cases, especially drug-related cases, there tend to be multiple people involved in the illegal activity, which are called co-defendants.
Other times, an individual that has charges of his/her own will have information relating to another crime or criminal activity, and these individuals can be referred to as a confidential source.
When a co-defendant or confidential source comes forward to cooperate with law enforcement and/or to testify against a person at trial, they are typically offered something in return.
This usually manifests itself in a plea agreement to charges that are less than the most serious charge that he/she might be facing in his/her criminal case.
The purpose behind such a deal with these types of individuals is to get a “bigger fish” or someone that is a more serious threat to the people of the community.
In these instances, we, as prosecutors, consult with law enforcement to make sure we are informed as to the background of these individuals and so that we can decide on the best course of action in each of the cases.
With all that said, these factors that have been discussed over the last few weeks are a few of the major factors that prosecutors use in analyzing and resolving most cases.
However, sometimes cases cannot resolve and an agreement cannot be reached, which is when a case proceeds to a full trial.
Next week, I will turn to a multi-week discussion on criminal trials and the intricacies of that process.
Ryan Sayers is the elected District Attorney of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.
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