Siegelman Asks 11th Circuit to Rehear Case

[Hissyspit]

Source: Locust Fork News-Journal

Siegelman Asks 11th Circuit to Rehear Case
March 26th, 2009
by Glynn Wilson

Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy are asking the full 12-judge Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to rehear the appeal in their political prosecution primarily on the basis that the alleged quid pro quo bribery claimed in the case was based on evidence of an “implied” agreement, not an “explicit” agreement.

“We filed today asking the 11th Circuit to rehear my case because we believe if their ruling, if left to stand, prosecutors will be able to pick and choose their targets among contributors and elected officials,” Siegelman said.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the McCormick case made it clear, he says, that in this area of First Amendment rights, before a jury could convict an elected official or a contributor on bribery there had to be an “explicit” not an “implied” agreement. “My three judge panel has allowed my conviction and my seven and a half year sentence to stand basically by defining ‘explicit’ to be something that can be inferred or implied by the jury form the mind and actions of actors,” he said. “Yes, this is about my personal freedom but it is even more important this First Amendment issue clarified so the law wont be a trap for the unwary,” he said, citing Thomas Jefferson, who once wrote: “Whenever the people see things that are wrong the people can be relied upon to set those wrongs to right.”

“We need to get a message to the U.S.Department of Justice to help get this wrong set right,” he said. “If the three judge panel’s new definition changing an ‘explicit’ to an ‘implied’ quid pro quo is allowed to stand not only am I up the creek without a paddle but federal prosecutors will be able to pick and choose contributors and elected officials seeking convictions based solely on a jury’s view of what was in the minds of the elected official not based on any express communication.”

Read more: http://blog.locustfork.net/2009/03/26/siegelman-asks-11th-circuit-to-rehear-case

---

READ the Appeal Motion Filed in the Case AT THE LINK

[Mister Ed]

1. K&R. Very Important. n/t

[defendandprotect]

2. How can we help with this . . .???

[annabanana]

10. Go HERE:

http://donsiegelman.org/index.html

(also, he could use some financial assistance: http://donsiegelman.org/donations_page_paypal.html)

[livvy]

28. Been meaning to donate for a while...the time is right...

Glad you posted the two links. Thanks!

[defendandprotect]

3. What's wrong with all Democrats who should feel highly threatened by

this kind of political attack on Siegelman --- PLUS it involves the whole election

stealing that's been going on -- probably since the late 1960's . ..!!!

[EFerrari]

5. The corrupted DoJ. Siegelman is fighting the inertia of a bureaucracy

that doesn't want to know there is anything wrong with ITSELF. This isn't looking very good.

[dmr]

9. I don't understand it either

If the shoe were on the other foot, imagine how the right would band together, along with Faux, CNN, ABC and the other double-talkers on their dis-infomercial TV shows.

I sure do hope he is granted a new and honest trial. The first was a grotesque travesty of how the justice system can run ramshod by dangerous and powerful people.

[Jefferson23]

14. I feel the same way, very frustrating, I wish I could do more for him.

[mopinko]

16. hey, people here who defended rod blagojevic were trounced.

he pretty much did what seigelman is accused of doing, his case was handled in an unprecedented manner, and although his indictment was based on wire taps, nothing clear cut was heard on the ones that has been released so far. yeah, i all looks bad, but who knows, right?
it might not be a perfect comparison. but the cases actually are pretty similar.

and before any of the trouncers return, i am very happy he was impeached. not because i think he is a crook, but because he is bat shit crazy. he wasn't doing his job.
we are dems. we believe in justice. they are thugs. they believe in just us.

[L. Coyote]

17. Election theft as an ongoing crime needs investigation

Statistical research might add convincingly to this history.
How much would be uncovered? Who knows?
How long did they have punch cards in Ohio?

Why isn't the stolen 2002 election story the big headline in the Siegelman story?
That's another dimension of this story, the futility of the situation post-theft-facto.
Like Gore facing a stolen Presidency in 2000, Siegelman faced the AL political powers.

In Ohio precincts where Kerry votes counted for Bush or third party candidates, no matter what we know now
the votes still count for Bush or third party candidates because that's the rules and no matter the obvious theft.
Declaring a winner in an election can impose a futile, post-theft-facto situation, especially if the other party politicizes government.

[emilyg]

4. K

[bjobotts]

6. 50 attorney generals agree this is a political prosecution.DoJ must stop this fiasco of Justice

[elleng]

7. The courts have to stop it first,

and it sounds like a well-justified appeal for the ENTIRE Court of Appeals. We can hope, once this matter is gone, that Justice will see that some is done down there.

[L. Coyote]

18. The "courts" are 50% Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gonzales, Monica Goodling appointees

so good luck with that! :rofl:

I jest and generalize because I'm ignorant of the composition of this specific court.

I do now who Bush placed on the courts, and who deployed what methods in the "political screening process" needs review and scrutiny with better retrospective context.

[elleng]

29. So am I, generally ignorant of that court,

but the ENTIRE 11th Circuit Court is more likely to do well than a 3-judge panel. AND after that, he'll take it to the Supremes.

[Kaleko]

8. Don Siegelman's never-ending episode in the Twilight Zone continues...

[Iwillnevergiveup]

11. What a toll this must be taking

on Siegelman and his family. Talk about justice denied.

K&R

[The Wizard]

12. Maybe this process will expose Rove

and other Bush criminals, but probably not since it's an appeal. The President should step in and grant a pardon. The Republicans and their Media monopoly with get their panties in a bunch and scream about rule of law, but the only ones paying attention to those assholes is other assholes who have earned minority status.
Don't show up for a gunfight wearing boxing gloves.

[L. Coyote]

19. Exposure and court reversals or indictment are distinct. 2002 AL politics = Abramoff-Rove

Deja DU: Abramoff and Kark Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex-Alabama Governor and Campaign Finances
Exposed Jun-01-07 = http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1023111

Rove Linked to Prosecution of Ex-Alabama Governor
By ADAM ZAGORIN/WASHINGTON
Friday, Jun. 01, 2007
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1627427,00.html?xid=rss-nation

In the rough and tumble of Alabama politics, the scramble for power is often a blood sport. At the moment, the state's former Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, stands convicted of bribery and conspiracy charges and faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Siegelman has long claimed that his prosecution was driven by politically motivated, Republican-appointed U.S. attorneys.

Now Karl Rove, the President's top political strategist, has been implicated in the controversy. A long time Republican lawyer in Alabama swears she heard a top G.O.P. operative in the state say that Rove "had spoken with the Department of Justice" about "pursuing" Siegelman, with help from two of Alabama's U.S. attorneys. ..............

========================
From June 3, 2005 by the Boston Globe
Gambling, GOP Politics Intertwine
Casino Payments Seen as Influential
by Michael Kranish - http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0603-08.htm

WASHINGTON -- George W. Bush gave the nation's gambling industry plenty of reason to fear his presidency. .... He wooed religious conservatives by boasting in a presidential debate about his ''strong antigambling record."

But as president, Bush has not spoken out against gambling. .... as Republican lobbyists and activist groups collected tens of millions of dollars from Indian tribes seeking to preserve their casinos. Now those payments are the focus of Senate and Justice Department investigations.

... White House ... annual sessions over a four-year period that were arranged by antitax crusader Grover Norquist ... After Bush dropped his antigambling rhetoric, lobbyists touted their access, and fund-raising from Indian tribes grew exponentially.

...Norquist('s) ... organization received $1.5 million from tribes and fought a tax on Indian casinos; lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a top Bush fund-raiser who earned millions of dollars in fees as a consultant to gaming tribes; and Ralph Reed ... allegedly used some money from Indian gaming tribes to fund his efforts to close down rival casinos and lotteries

.........Bush worked closely with religious conservatives, especially Reed....

..... Tiguas poured tens of thousands of dollars into the campaign of the Democrat running against Bush in 1998 .... Bush redoubled his earlier efforts to shut down the Tigua casino. ... special appropriation ... for the state's attorney general, John Cornyn, now a US senator, to take legal action against the tribe.....

Abramoff, who helped arrange for the rival tribes to give the money to Reed's group, turned around and offered his services to the Tiguas -- for $4.2 million in fees split between himself and a partner

..... Abramoff and his partner in Indian gaming consulting would receive more than $60 million in fees from six different tribes seeking to advance their gambling interests ... Abramoff also told the tribes to give money ... the tribes gave $3 million, two-thirds of it to Republicans

.... Abramoff and Norquist .. worked (for) ... candidate ... following year, Abramoff and Norquist came to Washington together to lead the Republican Party's national effort to recruit college students. Reed soon joined ...


In 1999, Don Siegelman, the Democratic governor of Alabama, proposed a lottery that would have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into public schools and even provided free college education for most Alabama high school graduates.

Reed, rallying religious conservatives, set out to try to defeat it ... quickly raised $1.15 million .... money came from Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform. Norquist ... got the funds from an Indian gaming tribe ...At the time Reed raised the money, he was working for Abramoff ... and Abramoff represented the Mississippi tribe.

Siegelman ..."'I don't know how they can sleep at night taking money from the Indian casinos to deny Alabama schoolchildren...."

.... Abramoff, meanwhile, appears to be the central focus ....Bush has not spoken on the matter.

[JohnWxy]

25. REally good stuff.

[barbtries]

13. kicking

Siegelman kind of exemplifies for me the whole left side of this nation: all these years, no justice, still fighting to achieve it. after all is said and done i hope there will be others behind bars in Siegelman's case just as i hope to see the bushies imprisoned for their crimes.

[LiberalFighter]

15. The court should reverse the conviction or at least allow a new trial

Otherwise, those on the courts that refuse should be prosecuted for implying an agreement with Karl Rove to prosecute Siegelman knowing that they would receive explicit rewards.

We know what these scumbags were doing and more importantly thinking so we don't need evidence to convict Rove and Company. Hmmmm

[JohnWxy]

26. A new trial of everybody involved inn this political prosecution. Rove, and DoJ prosecutors should

spend a decade of two in prison, in solitary confinement.

[valerief]

20. K&R

:kick:

[XXXMADAM]

21. “Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation”

http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=3721

[leftynyc]

22. Anyone know anything about

the 11th circuit?

[JohnWxy]

23. nothing too important here. Just whether political purges of the opposition party will be allowed

to succeed and whether our democracy will continue to be under threat from more of such Republican totalitarian tactics.

I'm sure this will get little to no coverage by M$M (at least not on television, maybe on internet.).


RECOMMENDED.

[Piewhacket]

24. Really? Political Purges, you say? Maybe its time to get busy on that.

[rambler_american]

27. K&R

:kick:

[Cha]

30. Kick for Don

Siegelman Justice.