Review of Governor’s Conviction Sought

Source: The New York Times, www.nytimes.com
April 22, 2009
By John Schwartz and Charlie Savage

Less than a month after the Justice Department asked a judge to drop the case against former Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska because of prosecutorial misconduct, 75 former state attorneys general from both parties have urged Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to conduct a similar investigation of the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, who was convicted nearly three years ago on bribery and corruption charges.

In a letter to Mr. Holder, the attorneys general said Mr. Siegelman’s defense lawyers had raised “gravely troublesome facts” about his prosecution that raise questions about the fairness and due process of the trial.

“We believe that if prosecutorial misconduct is found, as in the case of Senator Ted Stevens, then dismissal should follow in this case as well,” the group said in the letter, which was organized by Robert Abrams, a former attorney general of New York.

Lawyers for Mr. Siegelman, a Democrat, have long accused the Justice Department under President George W. Bush of conducting a politically motivated prosecution that they say was filled with irregularities, including a failure to turn over pertinent information to the defense team.

In the weeks since the Stevens prosecution was dropped over similar issues, Mr. Siegelman’s team has made efforts to draw parallels between the two cases.

One of Mr. Siegelman’s lawyers, Vincent F. Kilborn III, said in an interview from his office in Mobile, Ala., that at least three of the officials who have been accused of misconduct in the Stevens investigation have played a role in the Siegelman case, including Patty Merkamp Stemler, the chief of the appellate section of the criminal division at the Justice Department, who is being held in contempt in the Stevens case over documents demanded by the judge that were not produced.

“Here we are minding our own business,” Mr. Kilborn said, “and this Ted Stevens thing comes out — and some of the same cast of characters are in the Siegelman case, as it turns out.”

Mr. Stevens, a Republican, lost his Senate seat last year after being convicted of felony charges that he failed to disclose gifts and services. Mr. Holder dropped the charges on April 1 because of evidence withheld by prosecutors who are now the subject of an ethics investigation.

Laura Sweeney, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating the Siegelman case.

But she pointed out that a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit recently upheld Mr. Siegelman’s conviction, and because he is appealing that ruling, “the department will continue to litigate this matter in the courts, not in the media.”

Mr. Kilborn wrote a letter to Mr. Holder on April 3 laying out several of his charges of misconduct by prosecutors. He said Ms. Stemler sent a letter to lawyers on both sides concerning accusations that emerged in the appeals process that jurors had exchanged improper e-mail messages during the trial.

The letter revealed a private communication between United States marshals and the judge in the case that Mr. Kilborn characterized as inappropriate. The letter from Ms. Stemler came so late in the process, he said, that it limited options for the defense.

Ms. Stemler’s letter stated that the communication between the judge and the marshals had no effect on the case, however, and that it was only being revealed “out of an abundance of caution.” Mr. Kilborn scoffed at that logic, saying that any private dealings with the judge should have been noted at the time.

In the interview, but not in the letter, he noted that William Welch, chief of the department’s public integrity section, and his principal deputy, Brenda Morris, were held in contempt in the Stevens case and had a measure of involvement in the Siegelman case, though he did not offer evidence of misdeeds in his case.

Mr. Siegelman’s conviction centered on a donation by the former chief executive of HealthSouth, Richard M. Scrushy, to help retire a campaign debt. Prosecutors said that the donation was a deal for Mr. Scrushy’s appointment to the state hospital licensing board; Mr. Siegelman said it was nothing of the sort.

This is the third effort by Mr. Abrams to organize former attorneys general to help Mr. Siegelman, and the largest yet, with at least 10 Republicans signing their names. Grant Woods, a Republican and former attorney general from Arizona, said “nobody who signed that letter did so lightly,” especially those in his party. The issues transcended politics, he said, and the Kilborn letter raised serious questions.

“We think there’s something there to investigate,” he said. “This is not a desperate appeal by a convicted criminal defendant — these are substantial allegations that have great weight.”

Ultimately, however, the attorneys general have asked for something they have, in effect, already received. The Justice Department quietly disclosed in May 2008 that its Office of Professional Responsibility, an internal ethics watchdog, had begun an investigation into “allegations of selective or politicized prosecution” in four cases, including the one against Mr. Siegelman.

The Obama administration declined to talk about the details of the investigation.

For his part, Mr. Siegelman, who has been released from prison while awaiting the appeals of his conviction, said he was “enormously grateful” to the attorneys general for their intervention.



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