Give Don Siegelman a Fair Shot

Posted by Byard Duncan, AlterNet at 12:30 PM on July 14, 2009.

Guess it wasn't bad enough that Don Siegelman - Alabama's democratic ex-governor who was hauled in last year on paper-thin bribery charges - is sitting in a federal prison camp in Louisiana. A report published earlier today on the law blog Legal Schnauzer indicates that things are about to get worse.

Apparently, Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby, Alabama's two Republican U.S. senators, have made a deal with the White House that would leave Leura Canary, a Bush-appointed prosecutor, in charge of Siegelman's case.

Siegelman is understandably alarmed.

"I am in a time squeeze," he said today. "My attorneys just filed a motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence that proves prosecutorial misconduct by my prosecutors; withholding evidence, reshaping the testimony of witnesses, and knowingly presenting false testimony. The conduct has been outrageous."

"It is nonsense," he continued, "to think that the same Bush appointed prosecutors who perpetrated this misconduct will fairly review my charges of misconduct against them."

Siegelman is urging people to write or call White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Tim Kaine, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee to challenge this decision. You can do that here and here.

Tagged as: rahm emanuel, siegelman, don siegelman, tim kaine