Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: I wondered what ever happened to this guy. Sue WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) _ The Supreme Court has refused a request from former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to review his Miami drug conviction. Now in a U.S. prison, the once-wealthy Noriega claimed in a pauper's petition that the U.S. government may have entered into an agreement with Colombia's Cali cartel to obtain a key witness's testimony, and that the witness received a $1.25 million bribe from the cartel. The Supreme Court refused review today without comment. Noriega claimed ``the government's failure to reveal its deal with the Cali cartel'' violated Supreme Court precedent on the suppression of evidence that tends to show a defendant is innocent. The Justice Department opposed Noriega's petition, saying Noriega helped the Medellin cartel, a former Cali rival, ship ``significant quantities of cocaine through Panama to the United States'' from 1982 to 1985. The dictator was toppled and captured by invading U.S. troops in 1989, and brought back to the United States for trial. The department said in papers filed with the Supreme Court the U.S. government has traced $23 million in Noriega money in banks outside Panama. Department officials say although two Cali cartel members testified to the existence of the bribe during post-trial hearings, the witness denied it and no evidence has emerged to support either version. The lower courts agreed with the Justice Department that knowledge of the alleged bribe could not be imputed to U.S. prosecutors, even if the alleged bribe existed. -- Two rules in life: 1. Don't tell people everything you know. 2. Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
