Charles Walker celebrates moral victory, vows fight

Source: www.wrdw.com
May 22 2009

AUGUSTA,Ga---The Charles Walker camp is celebrating a moral victory. The judge who tried the case is taking a step back on Walker's latest appeal.
"There's an uproar that's coming like nobody has ever seen," said Charles Champ Walker, Jr. "But we knew this from the start."
Charles Walker Jr is talking tough as the judge who sent his father to prison for 10 years backs out of the appeals process.
"This proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there has been political tampering from day one," said Champ Walker.
Judge Dudley Bowen is recusing himself as questions surface dating back 30 years. In 1979, Walker actively opposed Judge Bowen's nomination because the judge was reported to be a member of several private white-only clubs.
"There's no ifs ands or buts about it," said Champ. "They went after him because he was powerful, and they wanted to stop him."
Champ points to an Augusta Chronicle article that says objections to Bowen's membership in five all-white clubs led Bowen to resign from those clubs.
"No reasonable person in their right mind would say that judge Bowen should have sat down as judge and presided over this trial knowing that my father went after him," said Champ.
Judge Bowen is not admitting personal bias in the case. But he is stepping back because his impartiality might be questioned.
"Judge Dudley Bowen recused himself from this hearing because he knew without any equivocation that my father went after him and his nomination in 1979," said Champ. "He should have recused himself from the trial all together. The law says so. He knows it, and the truth will be told."
Judge Bowen signed the order form May 18, 2009. The case has been refereed to the Chief Judge of the Southern District of Georgia. Meanwhile, Walker is filing an ineffective assistant of counsel claim. The whole point is to get his case back in court.