Coalition Calls for Siegelman Charges to be Dropped
July 23rd, 2009The Restore Justice At Justice Coalition calls on Attorney General Eric Holder to dismiss all charges against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.
The Restore Justice At Justice campaign, representing hundreds of organizations with more than one million members, issued a press release today calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to immediately dismiss criminal charges against former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman “in light of the latest astounding evidence filed in his case attesting to gross violations of the rule of law by federal prosecutors.”
Specifically, the organization points out, the government’s chief witness in the case, Nick Bailey, has sworn in an affidavit that “prosecutors told him what to say, made him repeat it until he got it right, threatened him if he did not say it, and lied to the federal judge presiding over the case about his testimony.”
Moreover, Mr. Bailey attested that government prosecutors intentionally withheld evidence and told him to hide a three ring binder with all of his copious notes of meetings with government agents and officials. Mr. Bailey has provided that binder to his attorney who has shared much of it with Mr. Siegelman’s attorneys to support the affidavit. Mr. Bailey’s associate and a professional legal investigator also provided affidavits supporting these assertions.
“There is now so much evidence of clear conflicts of interest, overt partisan political prosecutorial targeting, failures to recuse by at least one conflicted prosecutor as well as the judge in the Siegelman case, evidence withheld from the defense team, and now evidence of the coaching and strong-arming of witnesses in exchange for a lighter prison sentence and a promise to conceal embarrassing personal information, it all makes the prosecutorial misconduct in the case of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens — a Republican whose case was dropped by Obama’s Justice Deptartment shortly after they came to power — look like jaywalking,” says Brad Friedman.
“Prosecutorial misconduct has completely tainted Mr. Siegelman’s case,” he said. “His conviction must therefore be dismissed with prejudice by the Attorney General himself in order to correct a manifest injustice, restore integrity to the Department of Justice, and send a clear message that such reprehensible conduct will not be tolerated. Restore Justice At Justice calls on Eric Holder to act with dispatch to remove the stain and burden of an improper conviction from the shoulders of Mr. Siegelman.”
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