Scott Horton at Harper's: Corrupt Prosecutors - Texas, Alabama Take Top Honors

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http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/12/hbc-90004009

Corrupt Prosecutors: Texas, Alabama Take Top Honors
By Scott Horton

Last year the Wall Street Journal featured the effort of Bob Bennett, a former federal prosecutor who now heads a litigation firm in Houston, to expose the nation’s ten worst prosecutors. This week Bennett is back with the “Ten Worst Prosecutors of 2008.” The list will have few surprises for regular readers of No Comment. Leading the list for the second year running is former attorney general Alberto Gonzales, the man who, doing the bidding of Karl Rove, introduced new standards of ineptitude, dishonesty and political corruption to the U.S. Department of Justice. The award comes just at the right moment, as word spreads in Washington that the man George W. Bush addresses with the mafioso moniker “Fredo” is the target of a special prosecutor appointed by his successor. Bennett gives us an update on what Gonzales has been up to since he left his desk at main Justice:

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The other federal prosecutors on the Bennett list are Alice Martin and Leura Canary, the U.S. attorneys in Birmingham and Montgomery, respectively, who take the fourth and fifth worst prosecutor slots, respectively. Martin and Canary, who remain the subject of multiple internal ethics probes in the Bush Justice Department, have a long track record of abusive political prosecutions. While Illinois and Alaska are suddenly gaining attention over their multifaceted political corruption probes and prosecutions, Alabama still charts a special place. I imagine even Canary and Martin would argue that their state has a culture of political corruption which puts it in the running for the honor of “most corrupt” among the fifty members of the union. But Alabama distinguishes itself by the special role played by federal prosecutors in the process. The real center of the state’s political corruption lies smack in the U.S. attorney’s offices. Martin and Canary have mastered the art of using their prosecutorial powers to advance the interests of their political party and political associates, as Bennett notes. And they have done so with a wink and a nod from the Bush Justice Department, which has systematically swept all complaints against them–notably led by their career employees–under the carpet. These awards are richly deserved.

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