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Hold(y)er horses, Free Ted!

By: Mike gamecock DeVine (Diary)  |  April 5th, 2009 at 03:11 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

AG moves to overturn conviction of Republican senator in virtually unprecedented action

This criminal defense lawyer of 14 years was shocked to see a North Carolina prosecutor disgraced and disbarred in the Duke Lacrosse team non-rape case. It is not rare for District Attorneys to abuse their discretion by indicting and prosecuting defendants they suspect are innocent. It is extremely rare for such immunity protected govenment attorneys to be punished for their illegal acts.

I thought Hell would freeze over before I saw the government’s fangs sink into one of their own, like Mike Nifong.

Democrat Attorney General Erick Holder’s motion to dismiss charges, even after a jury trial and felony conviction, against a former Republican senator makes me think glaciers may be forming in Hades:

Faced with embarrassing revelations about withheld evidence, the Justice Department on Wednesday moved to reverse the conviction of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who lost his bid for re-election just days after a jury found that he had lied about gifts and home renovations.

Justice Department lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the indictment against Stevens and toss out his conviction — effectively killing their own courtroom victory with a shocking admission of misbehavior by prosecutors.

The last straw, apparently, was the failure of prosecutors to turn over notes of a crucial interview in which a witness contradicted a statement he made later under oath at trial.

Holder deserves great praise

“I have determined that it is in the interest of justice to dismiss the indictment and not proceed with a new trial,” Attorney General Eric Holder said.

He said the department must ensure that all cases are “handled fairly and consistent with its commitment to justice.”

Not only does the Attorney General seek to overturn a Justice Depratment conviction in a high profile case, but also declares that there will be no second prosecution. This is very impressive and quite a rare move for a government lawyer.

I have major differences with Holder on policy, legal opinons and actions, and political views on race matters, but he deserves high praise for exonerating Senator Stevens, who has so well served the people of Alaska for most of his life, even isolated communities in Nowheres that need bridges!

The main reason given for the AG’s motion to dismiss was the Justice Department’s violation of the precedent setting 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case of Brady v. Maryland which required that govenment prosecutors must disclose exculpatory evidence to the defense.

The prosecutors who handled the trial have been removed from the case and their conduct is under investigation.

Holder is a mixed bag and we can only hope that this move, along with some his recent advice to President Obama to continue following many of president Bush’s policies with regard to executive war powers, are signs of better decisions to come.

I do vividly recall that in 2002, Holder agreed with President Bush that illegal enemy combatents were not covered by the Geneva Conventions.

Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer, Examiner.com and Minority Report columns

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Originally published by Mike DeVine, Legal Editor for The Minority Report

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COMMENTS

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  • Tbone

    Mission accomplished.

  • Jack_Savage

    Now if these rogue prosecutors go to jail, that’s another thing. I won’t hold my breath.
    They’ll get the Giethner treatment – slap on the wrist and a promotion. It’s the liberal way.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    a time when Republicans averted their gaze from the huge beams in their own eyes that balooned soending in the the federal budget and instead directed their faux outrage at puny pork enabled with or without arcane procedural earmark rules. This era is significant for squandering our GOP ruling majority.

    And it had nothing to do with bridges, whether to wheres or nowheres.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    whether two prosecutors, whose careers are already ruined go to jail?

    I do.

    We don’t have to hold our breath for a great justice that has already been rendered.

  • Tbone

    If not, I don’t think I will point to Holder as being interested in justice.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    that the prosecution of Libby was the criminalization of politics and essentially a kind of entrapment that I abhor, I suspect that technically, Libby may have lied, but quite frankly I did recently become convinced that a pardon was in order.

    so I essentially agree ‘bone

    But I’ll take what good we can get and celebrate that with Stevens.

  • pilgrim

    Holder has shown that he will slap US Attorneys around a little without fear of causing protests. I don’t hear a peep out of the Ds over this one. Had the former AG dismissed this case last October we still would not hear the end of the screaming from them.

    I also read where Holder slapped around some US Attorneys who said the bill to give the District of Columbia a Rep. in the House the same as States have is unconstitutional.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine
  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    as the real terrorist pardoner.

  • janis

    purpose was to deny Stevens his re-election. Having done that, they don’t much care what happened in the end. Their whole focus was to get their filibuster-proof majority. As to the pork issue, certainly it was blown up out of proportion compared to the total bloated spending. As is typical with self-serving politicians, they will use whatever it takes to divert attention away from their own sins in order to save their own hides.

    Given Stevens’ age, I’m glad that he won’t have to serve any time nor pay any fines. But it is outrageous that criminals such as Ted Kennedy are feted and honored and knighted while Stevens had to retire in disgrace.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    could have involved the prosecution, but I don;t rule that out.

  • Achance

    http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/facinfo/tab_faculty.cfm?Status=Faculty&ID=1997

    Couldn’t find one on the guy who was her boss but I did read he’d been a trial attorney in the PIS before being appointed to the Director’s position during the Bush Administration.

    So, both of them were career employees with Democrat backgrounds who got promoted to very political positions by a Republican President. The Stupid Party strikes again!

  • raider

    Gamecock, I believe the easiest and the best way for a prosecutor to approach discovery in criminal cases is to provide an open file to defense counsel.

    From experience, I can only speak to open file discovery working well in the state court system in Tennessee. Maybe open file discovery wouldn’t work well for federal prosecutors. I don’t know. You have practiced criminal defense work in state court and federal court and would be a much better judge of that than I would be.

    As for me, open file discovery avoids Brady problems. It also avoids the problem of seeking to introduce evidence at trial that unintentionally was not dislcosed to defense counsel. I believe in allowing defense counsel to see everything and letting the chips fall where they may.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine
  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    They really should not behave like other lawyers given that, unlike other lawyers, they have the power to decide who they will choose to put in jail.

    I was a private criminal defense lawyer for 14 years, and it always disturbed me when prosecutors treated their job like a game.

    I used Brady to win a lot of cases.

    You nailed this issue raider, and I can only hope that despite all of Holder’s defects, that one of the positives will be that he acts as you suggest.

  • Achance
  • Mike gamecock DeVine
  • mom2oneson
  • Achance

    so long, the acronym just comes naturally. ‘Course you know how ‘crats are about TLAs and FLAs. (Three Letter Acronyms and Four Letter Acronyms)

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    acts since Obama took office and support from some real conservatives after election day.

    But its all relative…given the real problem is Obama.

  • Achance

    or he won’t be AG – or worse. His plane could crash somewhere in flyover country. When was the last time you saw a Democrat officeholder or appointee go free agent?

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    as they knew they had to tone down their BS

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    in some executive war power and enemy combatent law, but I get your point.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    that maintained their extremism and those, like Holder that were impelled to maintain credibility…and heh, that’s all we have now to hang hats on for little victories.

  • Achance

    and his boss, Holder is Columbia Law and mostly a working attorney. BHO was editor of the Hahvud Law Review (Affirmative Action or not), a “Law Professor” and a politician. The way score is kept in government, Holder’s opinion ain’t s#$t if it conflicts with BHO’s opinion.

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    We knew Bush’s grades!!!!

    And yes they, the Admissions records, do feed the Conspiracy Theorist “Birth Certificate” thingy! lol

  • Mike gamecock DeVine
  • Rod_Patrick

    says that this is just another way of making Sarah Palin look like a hypocrite and a liar just like the rest of the Republicans.

    I just pray that this is not true.

    But we need to be more vigilant whether there’s a grand scheme here that doesn’t meet the eye.

  • Raven

    But no. Redstaters didn’t give a damn. It was all about eliminating Stevens for you.
    “He’s a criminal!”
    “We’re better off without him!”
    “He’s part of the reason we lst in ’06!”

    Yeah. Great job, guys. Great job.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine
  • Mike gamecock DeVine

    I have never been a huge fan of the man and have been quite enraged at some of his arrogant musings, BUT

    none of it related to puny pork

    and I hate penny-wise and pound foolish mccainism and the criminalization of politics

    plus, it appears that Stevens did a lot of good for Alaska and America in his career in what he did on the big issues

  • Achance

    I don’t know if after all the controversy he can do the former senator act in DC and just glom on to some lobbying deal. He’s really only been here for district visits and campaign appearances since ’68; he hardly knows the place, at least from the standpoint of actually lving here.

    Rep. Young’s first reaction to the news of the motion to dismiss was to propose Stevens for Governor 2010. There’s some bad, bad blood between both Young and Stevens and Gov. Palin. Her calling for Stevens to step down did not go over well in Republican circles here. Likewise, her backing Parnell against Young was only well received in places like CfG and RedState.

    I don’t think Stevens would even consider running for Governor against her. Hopefully he’ll take a lesson from his former colleague Sen. Murkowski and conclude that the US Senate really isn’t a good training ground for Governor. That said, if he were to run, I’d pretty much guarantee he’d win.

  • Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://beaglescout.wordpress.com LJ “Beaglescout” Miller

    Either Libby or Tim Russert was wrong in their remembrance of an exchange between them. Given that the real leaker was Armitage I think it was unconscionable that Fizgerald, who knew this all along, continued to pursue others in a perjury trap. By the way, why was Armitage never prosecuted?