borndem
Anglophile & registered demwit
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- May 15, 2010
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Question for anyone who might know...
If a person is given immunity in exchange for evidence, is there any public record or formal record of it? So, for example (and just hypothetically), if Karen Berry had been threatened with prosecution but she gave them info in exchange for immunity, would the defense be able to refer to a formal document referring to the agreement?
Or is such a thing all done under the table, not on record?
In the Ryan Hare case (the four teenagers who were in on the murder of a "friend," Matthew Silliman), two of the accomplices who were also charged initially with 1st Degree Murder, took pleas for 2nd degree -- and were sentenced after Hare's trial -- agreed to testify at Hare's trial.
One did not testify because he became "iffy" just before he was to take the stand. One, who was not there at the time of the murder, did testify, but he had not yet taken a plea. Anyway, Allegra Dahlquist testified that she had taken a 2nd Degree plea. All four of them were charged with a prior 1st Degree Murder attempt on Silliman which failed, and all four were charged with 2 conspiracy to commit murder charges. Dahlquist's deal was definitely part of that trial record. She got ~37 years max, the other non-testifier got ~40 years max. The 3rd, who had a very small part of the crime, took an Alford plea and got accessory after the fact, ~5 years.
ETA: None of the 3 who were given deals obviously were not given immunity. But this is the closest case I know of where pleas were exchanged for testimony in Wake County that I have seen live.