No, not Dickie. Paul Minor.
“Much had changed from the 2005 trial that resulted in acquittals and a mistrial to the 2007 trial that resulted in a hasty conviction and a significant sentence,” his attorneys write. “This appeal addresses these changes – a series of constitutional, evidentiary, legal and sentencing errors by the district court that ultimately resulted in an unlawful conviction and sentence that cannot stand.”
Washington attorney Abbe Lowell, Minor’s lead defense attorney during the 2005 trial, filed the appellate brief with other members of his firm, McDermott, Will & Emery. …
Lowell argues the loans Minor extended and then repaid for the judges were not bribes as defined under the law because prosecutors failed to show he expected or received specific favors in exchange. [U.S. District Judge Henry T.] Wingate, the brief says, failed to accurately define bribery in instructions given to the jury that returned the guilty verdicts in 2007.
The brief also details charges of selective prosecution, currently under investigation by Congress, that Wingate rejected.
(h/t ccvz)
I’m no fan of these guys but this thing has to be reversed or the Dems will come with the indictments for Republicans who have done the same thing. By the way, the supreme court has already ruled that if there is no agreement between the parties for a specific act, then it ain’t bribery. So, we need to put lipstick on this pig and open the prison door.
Not sure where to put this, but if this is true, it should cause a lot more worry among the legal profession than anything Dickie et al ever hoped to accomplish with their shady dealings. This guy, if this is true, should be beaten AND disbarred. I’m not soft on criminals, but this is as bad as anything I’ve heard of.
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080630/NEWS/80630050
It’s true, shaves.
I’ll softpedal my last point slightly: There’s little question that the prior director was fouling up cases mightily and not presenting or investigating evidence. I don’t know the particulars of any one case.
GOPBilly, if Republicans have done the same things that Paul Minor has done, then they need to be in jail, too.
The previous director has a long history of completely unexplainable behavior. Once upon a time he was the municipal judge in Sardis.
I understand the soft-pedal rationale.
NMC, if it is even partially true then he should be disbarred at a minimum. And prosecuted for reckless endangerment or the equivalent. Lest the AG’s office get off scot-free they too should be investigated as well if they even remotely suspicioned or knew or should have had reason to wonder at all.
Do we really NEED to execute people where there is a semblance of a doubt? We’ve got prisons to keep them locked up away from the common folk forever if there is any reasonable suspicion of the remote possibility that the wrong person is being executed.
I guess I’ve just been too naive…I really had faith, but no more. Even when I had doubts I tried to reason with myself that “the truth will work it’s way out.” I see that was a delusion/illusion on my part.
What I hear from those more knowledgeable than me is that Minor has surely done plenty of crooked things that he *wasn’t* busted for, but what he was busted for may not have actually been crooked.
He just had the fault of thinking how clever it would be to cover up the money trail. Not too clever in retrospect.