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Decker jail term cut 12 months
Ex-state representative's cooperation cited by judge
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Published: July 27, 2009
A federal judge has reduced former state representative Michael Decker's prison sentence from 48 to 36 months, which could result in him being sent to a halfway house.
In an order signed Friday, Judge James C. Dever III of U.S. District Court cited Decker's help in the federal prosecution and conviction of Jim Black, the former speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives.
"Indeed, but for Decker's cooperation, Black might still be in office," Dever, wrote in the order.
Decker, of Walkertown, is now being held at a low-security prison near the South Carolina-Georgia border.
The reduced sentence means that he may be eligible to leave prison within the next month, said his attorney, David Freedman.
Just before Decker's sentencing in April 2007, federal prosecutors had asked that Decker's sentence be cut in half from 48 to 24 months because of the help he had provided in making the case against Black.
In Friday's order, Dever acknowledged Decker's cooperation but could not "ignore the serious nature of Decker's crime."
Black's case was resolved in the state court just two weeks ago and that may have influenced Dever's decision on Decker, Freedman said.
"I'm assuming the judge said, ‘Black's case is finally finished. Decker doesn't need to provide any more information,'" he said.
Sometimes federal judges don't rule on motions to reduce a sentence until there is no longer any chance that they will need a defendant to supply more information, Freedman said.
Decker admitted that, in late 2002 and early 2003, he asked Black for $50,000 to support Black's bid to remain co-speaker of the house.
Black, from Matthews, has maintained that the money was not part of any political favor or deal.
However, he agreed to a plea bargain that sent him to federal prison in July 2007 for 63 months. Earlier this month, he was moved from a prison in Lewisburg, Pa., to one in Jesup, Ga.
Black was also sentenced in Raleigh earlier this month to the minimum 11 to 14 months on state bribery charges after having paid a $1 million fine. Judge Donald Stephens of Wake Superior Court ordered that sentence to be served concurrently with Black's federal sentence.
In Dever's order Friday, the judge said that Decker had been prepared to testify against Black in state court if needed and that Decker had been forthright in admitting his involvement in the event.
The federal judge sentencing Black did not give him credit for accepting responsibility for what he had done, the order said.
Dever's order also said that Decker's continued cooperation and openness in the case helped reveal that Black was not being truthful with investigators even after he pleaded guilty.
■ Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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