Opinion ID: 396303
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Lack of Formal Statutory Immunity

Text: 45 It thus becomes critical to determine whether appellant's answers to the six questions would be protected under the terms of the immunity granted him earlier in his 1977 interview with the FBI. Unless the answers are validly immunized, an order requiring him to answer would violate appellant's privilege against self-incrimination. 46 The district court as well as both parties on this appeal appear to have assumed that appellant received the equivalent of statutory immunity for his FBI interview and have consequently focused on the issue of whether use immunity under 18 U.S.C. § 6002 covers answers to questions in civil depositions where the questions themselves are derived from the transcript of the immunized testimony. There is indeed a split of authority on this issue. 24 However, an even more basic problem presents itself in our reading of the transcript of the proceedings below. Every one of the other cases which have addressed the issue of the applicability of use immunity granted in the course of a criminal proceeding to compelled testimony in a subsequent civil case involved a deponent who was initially compelled to testify only after the issuance of a judicial order conferring statutory use immunity. 25 Appellant's FBI interview was not compelled by any order formally granting him full statutory use immunity, but came about only as a result of an oral promise by the FBI agent, the precise nature of which we cannot discern from the record on this appeal. Without formal statutory immunity we do not believe it is reasonable to assume that whatever protection appellant may have received against future federal prosecution is sufficient to protect him against any future use, direct or indirect, by federal or state prosecutors. Thus to require appellant to offer incriminating testimony at his civil deposition would be to do so at his peril. 47 Federal statutes prescribe a specific and exclusive procedure whereby a district judge, upon motion by a United States Attorney approved by high-ranking Justice Department officials, may order a witness to testify or provide other information before, or ancillary to, a federal court or grand jury, notwithstanding the witness' fifth amendment privilege. 18 U.S.C. §§ 6002, 6003. 26 The witness is not thereby immunized from prosecution. The only benefit as far as the witness is concerned is that no testimony or other information compelled under the order, or any information directly or indirectly derived from such testimony may be used against him in a subsequent criminal prosecution. Id. This limited use immunity is available only if the immunity is granted in compliance with the clear requirements of the statute. 27 48 This appellant did not receive anything remotely resembling statutory use immunity. 28 The parties agree that he was given only an oral promise that he would not be prosecuted by the federal authorities by reason of any of his interview statements. We cannot even be sure of the precise scope of this promised immunity because the discussion containing the details of the purported agreement between appellant and the FBI agent is not part of the record. 29 At a minimum there is (1) a substantial question on this record as to the extent of the protection promised appellant by the verbal promise made to him during his 1977 interview and (2) no authority for ruling that oral promises of immunity by an investigator, not in accord with statutory requirements, bind all federal and nonfederal prosecutors. In the face of such uncertainties he is entitled to rely on his fifth amendment rights as to potentially incriminating questions when prosecutions are neither fanciful nor barred by the applicable statute of limitations. 30 49 Given all this, we hold that appellant could not be compelled to answer the six questions he refused to respond to, and the district court's order of civil contempt is hereby 50 Vacated.