Bruce Maffeo, a member of Cozen O'Connor's White Collar Defense & Investigations practice, discusses the second circuit revisiting limits on Proffer agreements in the New York Law Journal. As experienced federal criminal practitioners are all too well aware, the limited protections for statements provided by a client in the course of plea negotiations against their later use by the prosecution can create a precarious trap for the unwary. Should the plea negotiations fail and the prosecution proceed to trial, prevailing case law in the Second Circuit severely limits trial counsel's ability to either elicit testimony through cross-examination or make jury arguments that are inconsistent with statements provided by their clients in the earlier plea negotiations, and can therefore hobble counsel's ability to try the case.
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