Don Siegelman – still a felon
A federal appeals court today upheld most of the bribery and corruption charges against former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and all of the charges against former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta struck down two of the seven charges that Siegelman was convicted of and ordered a new hearing in which his sentence of more than seven years may be reduced.
But the court upheld key bribery, conspiracy and obstruction counts against Siegelman in what prosecutors described as a scheme in which he put Scrushy on a state hospital regulatory board when he was at the helm of HealthSouth.
The power of Rove is great. Even with Bush out of power he is still manipulating his judicial puppets. The ever expanding scope of the conspiracy against Don Siegelman will soon include two-thirds of the free world.
Seriously, this ruling underscores the validity of the Siegelman prosecution. Let’s pretend that Siegelman was originally prosecuted because of his party affiliation, not because he engaged in a pay to play scheme. A jury of Siegelman’s peers thought the evidence was sufficient to convict him. The judge in the case felt that the jury acted in good faith. An appeal to three career jurists left most of the convictions in place. Assuming this was a political witch hunt to begin with, it looks like the prosecutors just happened to stumble across some actual wrong doing.
Or…
It seems far more credible that the prosecution had due cause to mount a case against Siegelman. Their case had to be particularly strong, the evidence sufficiently compelling, to successfully prosecute a powerful former governor and absurdly rich CEO as the defense team would be among the best. As it turns out, Siegelman was found – beyond a reasonable doubt – to have violated the public trust while governor.
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After reading the defense points and subsequent 11th circuit decision on each, it seems as if there isn’t much to appeal, fairly strong decision. Question will be whether don gets time served, but scrushy is just SOL. It’s almost like they’ve forgotten that he’s still in jail and don is walking around free. Bet scrushy is seriously kicking himself for that boat ride in florida that must be the basis for still holding him as a flight risk.
Will be interesting to see how next batch of appeals will be handled by the incoming US attorneys. Either way, there will be sorely disappointed people.
Appeals court decision is well reasoned and a reminder facts and precedents decide cases not innuendo and assertions disguised as fact.
Dead on Brian. Well done.
Had the Appellate court reversed the conviction, I could see the incoming US Attorney drop it. However with the affirming of the conviction, I think the incoming US attorney will have no choice but to keep going.
Thank You Old Prosecutor! Until I read your wise opinion I was discouraged and disappointed in the Appellate Courts decision. The incoming US Attorney will have no choice but to keep going and I think that will be a good thing. Bring on the incoming US Attorney.
Since Seigelman will have to be resentenced there is also the possibility of some type of deal, say time served in exchange for dropping the appeal.