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May 12, 2009
Bush Dept of Justice calls for harsher sentence for Governor Siegelman
By Pam Miles
Federal prosecutors want former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman to serve a much longer sentence than he originally received in a federal government corruption case, even though an appellate court has thrown out two of the charges against him.
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The holdovers from the Bush Department of Justice intends to ask the sentencing judge to give former Democratic Governor, Don Siegelman twenty (20) additional years in prison. Siegelman was convicted of bribery for reappointing a contributor to an all volunteer board. The campaign contribution went to fund a campaign to support public education in Alabama. Siegelman was not accused of receiving any money. The Bush appointed U.S. Attorney, whose husband is a close friend of Karl Rove's, still holds her appointment as United States Attorney in Alabama. It is her office and the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division of Department of Justice which are still under Bush appointees control, made their demand for a longer sentence in its formal objections to a pre sentence report prepared by a senior probation officer which called for a lighter sentence.The Government's request for Siegelman to be resentenced to twenty(20) years and to be fined up to $250,000 will come back before Judge Mark Everett Fuller who, in an unexplained move, had Governor Siegelman handcuffed, shackled and taken to a maximum security prison in Atlanta where he was put in solitary confinement immediately following his sentencing in June of 2007.
Also bizarre is the fact that the longer prison term is based on charges for which he was found not guilty.
The Bush allies within the Department of Justice will be asking Judge Fuller to sentence former Democratic Governor to prison for crimes the jury said he didn't commit using a prerogative of prosecutors that Courts have approved. Siegelman's lawyers say they will argue that to sentence the former Governor Siegelman to prison for crimes of which he was found to be innocent "defies our Constitutional right to a trial by jury and renders it to be totally meaningless".
"How can the Department of Justice in the United States of America, a country whose fundamental law is based on a Constitution, ignore what that Constitution says about the right to trial by a jury," asked Susan James, Siegelman's sentencing lawyer.
In addition to the U.S. Attorneys appointed by President Bush who have been left in power by President Obama, there are several high level Bush appointees still in control of all criminal cases against public officials including Siegelman's. They include: William M. Welch, II, Chief, Public Integrity Section, Criminal Division, Richard Pilger, Senior Trial Attorney, Public Integrity Section, Criminal Division, and Rita Glavin, Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Federal prosecutors want former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman to serve a much longer sentence than he originally received in a federal government corruption case, even though an appellate court has thrown out two of the charges against him.The prosecutors have sent a letter to federal probation officers recommending that Siegelman be sentenced to 20 years in federal prison when he receives a new sentencing hearing in federal court in Montgomery. Siegelman was originally sentenced to more than seven years in prison for his 2006 conviction for bribery, obstruction of justice and other charges.