Opinion ID: 571296
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Mr. Parrish's due process argument

Text: 44 Mr. Parrish's final challenge to his conviction is based on the government's plea bargaining with Mr. Hernandez. Mr. Parrish argues that, by interfering with Mr. Hernandez's guilty plea and trying Mr. Hernandez as his co-defendant, the government deprived him of exculpatory evidence. This contention is based on the fact that at sentencing Mr. Hernandez told his probation officer that Mr. Parrish did not give him the money. 45 Mr. Parrish makes no allegation that the government possessed exculpatory information that it did not disclose. He does not suggest that the government had any reason to believe that Mr. Hernandez would testify in his favor. In fact, all the facts suggest the opposite; the government believed that any testimony of Mr. Hernandez would have been adverse to Mr. Parrish. 46 If Mr. Parrish wished to obtain Mr. Hernandez's testimony, Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure permitted him to move for severance. See, e.g., United States v. Bovain, 708 F.2d 606, 610 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 898, 104 S.Ct. 251, 78 L.Ed.2d 238 (1983). The government is not required to plea bargain with defendants or defendants' attorneys. Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(e). If the government and the defendant reach a plea agreement, the court is not required to accept it. Santobello v. New York, 404 U.S. 257, 262, 92 S.Ct. 495, 498-99, 30 L.Ed.2d 427 (1971); Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(e)(3), (4). Thus a defendant has no right to complain that the government failed to negotiate or to accept a plea agreement from a co-defendant in order to remove that co-defendant from the umbrella of the Fifth Amendment and compel him to testify. Mr. Parrish's due process challenge is without merit.