Sullivan pushed for death from start

He had investigated the grisly killings as Plymouth district attorney, and as he prepared to take the federal job Sullivan unearthed a federal statute, carjacking resulting in death, that allows federal prosecutors to claim the case from state court and pursue the death penalty.

"Even before I got into the office, I notified the US attorney's office that the facts of the case fit the elements of the federal carjacking-resulting-in-death statute," he said yesterday. "We began compiling reports that we were able to secure during the early stages of the investigation. When we described the facts of the case, many people said it fit like a hand in a glove, in terms of the elements of a federal carjacking crime."

In the two years Sullivan has been US attorney, he has claimed five cases that are eligible for the death penalty from local courts, where the death penalty can't be pursued. It has bolstered his image as a hard-core death penalty proponent. It has also brought out critics who have accused Sullivan of using the maneuvers to advance his political career by showing his willingness to bring a death penalty prosecution in a state with no death penalty law.

After taking over as US attorney in September 2001, Sullivan found a willing ally in Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. Ashcroft, who must approve all death penalty prosecutions, has frequently sought the death penalty, often in states that do not have a death penalty statute.

According to the Death Penalty Resource Counsel, Ashcroft authorized the death penalty for 93 defendants between the time he was appointed in February 2001 and September 2003, including 37 cases in which local federal prosecutors had recommended against it. Seven cases were in states with no death penalty law.

Of Sullivan's five cases eligible for the death penalty, he is seeking the death penalty in three: against Sampson and against Darryl Green and Branden Morris, who are alleged members of the street gang called the Esmond Street Crew who are charged with murder. A fourth case is pending against another gang member charged with murder. Sullivan has not decided whether to pursue the death penalty in that case.

Sullivan's predecessor, Donald K. Stern, sought the death penalty only once during his eight years as US attorney, against nurse Kristen Gilbert, who was convicted in 2001 of killing four patients at a Northampton Veteran's Administration hospital. The jury in that case voted against execution.

But despite his reputation, Sullivan recommended against seeking execution in the Green and Morris cases, reportedly because he didn't think the crimes rose to a level worthy of death, according to federal sources. In that case, Ashcroft overruled Sullivan and ordered a death penalty prosecution, the sources said.

Sullivan also did not seek the death penalty in the case of Paul A. DeCologero, a reputed mobster who was charged with ordering the murder of 19-year-old Aislin Silva in November 1996.

Sullivan said yesterday that he sought the death penalty in the Sampson case because of the horror of the crimes, whose details his office helped unearth when he was district attorney in Plymouth. "During the early stages of the investigation, we recognized how horrible these crimes were," Sullivan said yesterday, "how completely unnecessary the vicious murders were and how Sampson could have accomplished his objective of stealing the cars . . . without brutally murdering either one. It was important for us to see if the death penalty could be pursued."

Stern, now in private practice, said that despite his personal opposition to the death penalty, he might have sought it if he were prosecuting the Sampson case.