Siegelman Prosecution Was Riddled With Misconduct

[kpete]

Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Memo to Holder: Siegelman Prosecution Was Riddled With Misconduct

Attorney General Eric Holder is taking firm steps to deal with prosecutorial misconduct during the George W. Bush era. And that's a good thing.

But the beneficiaries of Holder's reviews, so far, have all been Republicans. And that is not a good thing--especially when you consider that perhaps the most egregious example of prosecutorial misconduct in the Bush years came in the case against Don Siegelman, the former Democratic governor of Alabama.

How corrupt were the actions of prosecutors in the Siegelman case? We can point Mr. Holder and his staff in several directions:

* The Paul Weeks affidavit--Holder's reviews have focused largely on Alaska corruption cases involving former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens and state legislators Victor Kohring and Peter Kott. In each case, federal prosecutors failed to disclose evidence to the defense. And William M. Welch, chief of the U.S. Public Integrity Section, was involved in each case.

Alabama attorney and GOP whistleblower Jill Simpson says Welch also was involved in the Siegelman case. And as happened in Alaska, Welch apparently withheld key information from the defense. Simpson says Welch came to Alabama when defense attorneys in the Siegelman case moved for the recusal of U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller. Welch's role, Simpson says, was to defend Fuller--and he succeeded in keeping the judge on the case.

.............

As we reported here at Legal Schnauzer:

Grimes also provided e-mails that show previously undisclosed contacts between prosecutors and the Siegelman jury.

A key prosecution e-mail describes how jurors repeatedly contacted the government's legal team during the trial to express, among other things, one juror's romantic interest in a member of the prosecution team. "The jurors kept sending out messages" via U.S. marshals, the e-mail says, identifying a particular juror as "very interested" in a person who had sat at the prosecution table in court. The same juror was later described reaching out to members of the prosecution team for personal advice about her career and educational plans.

And that was not the only hanky panky between jurors and the prosecution:

Further undisclosed evidence of prosecution team members speaking with jurors following the verdict emerges in Grimes' written statement to the DoJ. In it, she says a member of the team prosecuting Siegelman had spoken with a juror suspected of improper conduct — apparently at the time the judge was due to question the juror about that conduct. Grimes quotes the lead prosecutor in the case as saying someone had "talked to her. She is just scared and afraid she is going to get in trouble."

more:
http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2009/06/memo-to-holder-siegelman-prosecution.html

[csziggy]

1. K&R

[Janice325]

2. Another k&r

[rhett o rick]

3. I don't understand what's the problem with Pres Obama and Holder on setting this right. nm

[angrycarpenter]

4. Simple, it is the tip of the iceberg.

US atty. firings, Karl Rove, judicial misconduct, Miss. indian gaming, Gov. Riley and his fixed election, the list goes on. So many "important" people gathered to bring him down that no one wants to touch it with a ten foot pole.

[Kaleko]

5. Right. That's the problem.

[rhett o rick]

9. Ignoring it won't make it better. These crooks are still out there, still hard at work to

bring down our democracy.

[QC]

6. Maybe Ted Stevens can intervene for Siegelman.

Stevens certainly seems to have some mojo with this administration.

[Jim Sagle]

15. Stevens is a Republcan. Siegelman's a Democrat. Do the math.

[angrycarpenter]

7. I moved back to Ala in Dec.

and I am amazed at how little people here know about the case. Most know only what they are supposed to know, he was a crook who took bribes.

I posted a reply to an editorial in our local paper. It was a RW rant about voter fraud and acorn and how Ala. should do something about it. Briefly I told the story of how the votes were counted in the middle of the night in a locked room. The votes were flipped and Riley was declared the winner and no recount was allowed. My reply was removed as well as a couple of other replies I had made on other subjects.

It was the Gadsden Times (a NY times company). All of the replies that agreed with the RW bile were left. Haven't been back or bought their paper since.

Alabama sucks, Florida at least had a beach.

[kpete]

8. I love Alabama, the people, not the politics..

lived there (Birmingham) in the early 80s, my son was born there, nice people
peace, kp

[HOLOS]

10. KICK

[Wednesdays]

11. K&R

:kick:

[Land Shark]

12. Here's hoping/thinking that the imbalance in exonerations is a lead-up to torture prosecutions...

To a large extent, the opposing political party is institutionally disqualified via conflict of interest from putting on a fair prosecution/investigation, at the very least in appearance. The clock is ticking, and patience can't last forever, but I'm thinking that the stalling on torture and the imbalance in investigations helps to set up the big prosecutions, so it doesn't appear that everything on the Dem side is partisan and motivated by retaliatory politics. If this is correct, then torture prosecutions happen when the public reaches a critical mass and demands it, that way it's not just Ds going after Rs.

[MasonJar]

13. What can we do to insist this become a number one priority. I am sick

of Obama taking the easy way on every issue. These people are the felons, not SEIGELMAN. He needs to be freed NOW.

[donheld]

14. K & R

[rasputin1952]

16. It appears to me there is a lot more to this than we see...

if there is an investigation that goes deep, (and I think there is), this could take some time, and some pretty big heads could roll. It's going to take time to unravel this mess.

There is one thing that the president could do, and that is pardon Siegelman...but that would not exonerate him. I think Siegelman is looking for exoneration, not merely a pardon, after all, a pardon does not take away a conviction.

Those that aggressively prosecuted him, and misconduct need to be looked at, and if necessary, charges be brought agaisnt those involved...in any case, things like this take time and resources, this must be done right and an ironclad case be brought before the powers that be as well as the public.

[Kingofalldems]

17. Kick this for the DU freepers who proclaim his guilt

just like the neocons.