|
 Bulger, 85, was found guilty of committing or ordering 11 murders
in the 1970s and 1980s in a trial that shone a light on his corrupt
relationship with federal agents and prosecutors in Boston, who
turned a blind eye to the Irish-American gangster's crimes in return
for information they could use against the Italian-American Mafia.
The former head of the "Winter Hill" gang currently is serving a
sentence of two life terms plus five years for what U.S. District
Judge Denise Casper called his "unfathomable" crimes.
His attorney, Hank Brennan, is expected to argue in the First
Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals that Casper violated Bulger's
rights by not allowing him to testify that a U.S. attorney for
Massachusetts, Jeremiah O'Sullivan, who has since died, had offered
Bulger immunity for his crimes, which also included extortion and
drug dealing.
 Casper contended that even if Bulger had been offered immunity for
information on rival criminal gangs, a deal that allowed him to
continue to murder with impunity would have no legal standing.
For his part, Bulger denied ever serving as an informant - or "rat"
in gang parlance - contending he paid a corrupt FBI agent for
information but offered none of his own.
"I've been choked off from having an opportunity to give an adequate
defense and explain about my conversation and agreement with
Jeremiah O'Sullivan," Bulger told Casper during his trial. "For my
protection of his life, in return, he promised to give me immunity."
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Federal prosecutors, represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall
Kromm, are expected to argue that Bulger never produced any evidence
that an immunity deal existed.
"Bulger's claim that the district court violated his constitutional
rights by precluding him from testifying as to an alleged immunity
agreement with a federal prosecutor is meritless," they wrote in a
filing ahead of Monday's hearing.
Bulger, whose brother William was the president of the Massachusetts
state Senate, fled the city in 1994 on a tip that his arrest was
imminent. He spent 16 years on the lam, many listed atop the FBI's
"Most Wanted" list, before his capture in Southern California in
2011.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Eric Beech)
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