Siegelman originally received a sentence of roughly seven years following his conviction on federal corruption charges. The new recommendation comes after a panel of three appellate judges dismissed two of the seven charges the former governor was convicted of and ordered a new sentencing hearing.
AP reports:
Prosecutors made the recommendation in a letter to federal probation officers. The probation officers will prepare a report recommending a new sentence to U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller.
Siegelman and his attorneys noted the absurdity of prosecutors asking for an extended sentence after an appellate court had thrown out two felony counts.
Today's report is alarming for a couple of reasons:
(1) It lends credence to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling that upheld most of the convictions against Siegelman and codefendant Richard Scrushy. Our research of the ruling, and the relevant law and facts, indicates the 11th Circuit's ruling was flawed, unlawful, and a continuation of the politics that have permeated the case from the outset.
(2) It indicates that federal prosecutors are acting as brazenly under the Barack Obama administration as they did under George W. Bush. We now have Eric Holder as attorney general, but today's news indicates that makes zero difference to the prosecutors who ramrodded the Siegelman case.
Is the 11th Circuit's ruling flawed? The answer is yes. You certainly won't hear about that from federal prosecutors, and no one in the mainstream press is likely to examine the ruling closely enough to determine whether it is legit or not.
But we have studied the ruling and found it be full of holes. Our findings are coming soon.
What a travesty of justice. Do the Alabamaa Federal Prosecutors have nothing better to do? Don is an innocent man who is trying to clear his name.Shame on the prosecutors. They should be investigated. What they are doing does not even sound legal.
ReplyDeletewhere is obama during all of this? Should he not be looking into the DOJ activities?
ReplyDeleteThis sort of nullifies yours and the ex govs whole case of a Republican witch hunt. You may wish to also follow up on the John Goff case, whom you once said was a victim of the GOP, yet in reality was a small time Bernie Madoff.
ReplyDeleteSee the world objectively for a change.
Michael:
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I don't follow you. How does this nullify the notion that it was a GOP witch hunt? From where I sit, it seems to add to that notion.
As for John Goff, his case already had been dealt with administratively, until he sued Bob Riley. That's when the gov apparently pushed it to become a criminal matter. That should concern any American, of any political stripe.
They asked for 30 years last time and got 7. Now they are asking for 20. It's not uncommon for a criminal defendant to get charges tossed out on appeal, but actually wind up doing more time because the judge imposes a harsher sentence at the new sentencing hearing. Several years ago, I saw a medical doctor who was already out on probation go all or nothing on appeal because a felony conviction meant losing his license. He lost, got a stiffer sentence, went back to prison and lost his license. The bottom line is he knew too much about some bad things his partners had done. They and the hospital were getting sued for malpractice and this doctor was going to be called as a witness for the plaintiffs until he was discredited by the criminal conviction. A similar thing is going on in Siegelman's case. He knows too much about Iran Contra drug trafficking by Alabama Republicans. The system is not fair.
ReplyDelete