OpEdNews » Minor Appeal Shines Spotlight on GOP Corruption

Support OEN
With Your
Tax-Deductible Donation

Tags for This Article:

Populum Tag Cloud Control Panel
	Fine tune your search to access content

Articles	Links
Diaries	Products
Events	All

All time
Last 6 mos
Last month
Last week
Last 24 hrs

From:
Month Day Year

To:
Month Day Year

Alphabet Popularity	Count ON Count OFF
This Level	Sub-levels

Tag(s): Alabama; Alternative; Blogger; Corruption; Law; Mississippi; South
Add to My Group

July 7, 2008 at 15:26:39

Minor Appeal Shines Spotlight on GOP Corruption

by Roger Shuler Page 1 of 1 page(s)

www.opednews.com

SAVE FAVORITES

VIEW FAVORITES

View Ratings | Rate It

Minor Appeal Shines Spotlight on GOP Corruption

The Don Siegelman case in Alabama is the best known example of an apparent political prosecution by the Bush Justice Department. But the Paul Minor case in Mississippi is every bit as questionable as the Siegelman case. And a recently filed appellate brief in the Minor case provides insight into how a federal judge, a Reagan appointee, unlawfully put three men in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate is the bad guy in the Minor saga. And the appellate brief lays out in detail how a corrupt judge can circumvent the law--in fact, can create his own law from the bench--in order to get a politically desired result.

The brief makes a special point of noting the role of the alternative press in getting the Minor case before the public's attention, citing Scott Horton of Harper's.org, Larisa Alexandrovna of Raw Story, Adam Lynch of the Jackson Free Press alternative weekly, and Alabama blogger Legal Schnauzer.

www.legalschnauzer.blogspot.com

I live in Birmingham, Alabama, and work in higher education. I became interested in justice-related issues after experiencing gross judicial corruption in Alabama state courts. This corruption has a strong political component. The corrupt judges are all Republicans, and the attorney who filed a fraudulent lawsuit against me has strong family ties to the Alabama Republican Party, with indirect connections to national figures such as Karl Rove. In fact, a number of Republican operatives who have played a central role in the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman (a Democrat) also have connections to my case. I am married, with no kids and two Siamese cats. I am the author of the blog Legal Schnauzer. The blog is written in honor of Murphy, our miniature schnauzer (1993-2004)who did so much to help my wife and me survive our nightmarish experience with corrupt judges. I grew up in Springfield, Missouri, and I am pretty much a lifelong St. Louis Cardinal baseball fan. I've lived in Birmingham for almost 30 years and have adopted the UAB Blazers as my Southern college football and basketball team to follow. Also, follow East Tennessee State basketball. An avid reader, both fiction and non-fiction. Influential writers on public affairs are Kevin Phillips, Michael Lind, Thomas Edsall, E.J. Dionne, Molly Ivins, and Scott Horton.