Don Siegelman Case: Federal judge says jury instructions were totally wrong
and don't exist under actual law.
http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/
Monday, February 1, 2016
Former federal prosecutor Stephen Feaga, in a recent op-ed piece for the Montgomery Advertiser, tried to convince the public that jury instructions in the Don Siegelman case were correct. We have shown that Feaga's claim is wildly off target, and a judge who has served on the federal bench in Alabama for 35 years agrees with us.
Myron Thompson, nominated by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, wrote in a 2012 opinion that jury instructions in federal bribery cases long have been filled with murky, inexact, confusing language. Thompson, writing in an opinion for the Alabama bingo trial (U.S. v. Milton E. McGregor, et al), said the problem goes beyond the case that sent Siegelman and codefendant Richard Scrushy to prison. Thompson said federal appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court have for years done a poor job of defining the line that marks legal and illegal transactions between public officials and campaign donors.
Thompson offered the jury instructions he crafted for the bingo case, which resulted in zero convictions, as an example of what should be consistently used across the country. Thompson even called on the nation's highest court to clarify the law, perhaps by using his suggested instructions.
It's now roughly three years later, and we've seen no clarity from the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Siegelman remains in federal prison for "crimes" that might exist under the flawed jury instructions of former federal judge Mark Fuller--but do not exist under the actual law.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
... it's that piece of shit, Karl Rove, and anyone else that had a hand in this travesty.
I fuckin' HATE
Republicans.
"false imprisonment" verdict pays victims in Alabama.
