Instead of taking each other to court, they team up and bully the NIH into some leniency.
One possible strategy by Mr. Muse's lawyers would be to seek a deal in which he could plead guilty to a lesser charge that would reduce his potential sentence; or to have any cooperation be factored into a request for leniency.
Before the sentencing, a group of vocal LGBT activists in Atlanta had recently petitioned the judge involved for leniency, taking into account time already served, leading some to criticize them and question their motives.
Many white-collar prosecutions are built by charging people lower down in an organization and then "flipping" those defendants into prosecution witnesses to get leniency in their sentencing.
Among those who think he is too nice -- prosecutors, mainly -- the complaints run from his staying on the bench into the evening to his leniency toward defendants.
The petite woman, who investigators said had used her good looks to lure poor, deaf Mexicans into the operation, pleaded for leniency: "I have two children and I miss them terribly," she said.
The Swiss competition commission launched an investigation in February, prompted by an "application for leniency" by UBS, into possible adverse effects on Swiss clients and companies of alleged manipulation of LIBOR and TIBOR (the Tokyo inter-bank offered rate) by the two Swiss and ten other international banks and "other financial intermediaries".The regulatory machinery will grind slowly.
Each essay is twice rated and Rasch modelling is used to scale the scores taking into account rater severity or leniency.
While it's common for investigators to turn suspects facing charges into informants in exchange for leniency, they typically work their up to the top of a criminal organization — it's rare to use the boss to set up underlings.
As the months dragged into years, Mr. Hawkins's pleas for leniency were offset by his erratic behavior.
