Glynn Wilson

Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman in Atlanta for his appeal hearing Dec. 9, 2008

ANALYSIS
by Glynn Wilson

Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman has filed a motion in federal court asking for a new trial based on the emergence of new evidence uncovered since his conviction along with his co-defendant Richard Scrushy.

According to the court document, available here, his motion largely copies the document filed by Scrushy’s attorneys last week.

Scrushy Asks Judge for New Trial in Bribery Case

After a full reading of the motion, these are the main points.

Siegelman’s lawyers are accusing the federal prosecutors of blatant misconduct, including the manipulation of testimony from key witness Nick Bailey, improper contact with jurors and failure to disclose key documents to the defense, thus denying Siegelman and Scrushy a fair trial under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The motion demands an immediate evidentiary hearing to explore improper communications between the prosecutors and the jury and between prosecutors and the judge not disclosed to the defense team.

We have covered the issue of the provacative e-mails before. We said then and we’ll say again now. If the jury was reading news coverage online and communicating about that through e-mail, this case should have automatically been declared a mistrial. The very idea that Siegelman, a white collar defendant even the government said was no flight risk, was shackled off to jail the day of the sentencing hearing by a judge who knew there was improper jury communications going on is by itself a travesty of justice.

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