by Tina Grazier
“The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.” – Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775
You remember Ted Stevens, the Republican Senator from Alaska? The federal case against him was widely publicized, how could anyone forget! Stevens was convicted of a low-grade felony for failure to list on his Senate disclosure forms gifts and renovation work on his home. The sensational case was rushed toward prosecution, and in the process his reputation trashed, during the Obama/McCain presidential campaign. Recently this case has come under scrutiny under allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.
Prosecution of the much more serious charges against Democrat Representative William Jefferson were subject to much delay after he came under investigation in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina. He was eventually indicted by a Federal Grand Jury June 4, 2007 on sixteen charges related to corruption. Jeffersons trial, originally set to begin on Dec. 2, 2008, was postponed until after the 2008 December 6 general election in Louisiana’s 2nd congressional district.
Jefferson’s attorneys petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to oblige postponement of Jefferson’s trial by lower courts. The petition for postponement was based in part on an argument that “Once a trial takes place, the injury caused by exposure to trial cannot be undone, even if he (Jefferson) is acquitted or a conviction is subsequently reversed”. Jefferson went on to win his 2006 bid for reelection.
Media coverage in these two cases was dramaticly different. Jefferson’s case was not widely publicized or sensationalizes as was the Stevens case. Misconduct by prosecuters in the Stevens case is thought to be a result of young, ambitious attorneys seeking to further their carreers by “bagging” a high profile Senator. Whether or not these prosecutors also had political motivations may never be known. The people have not been served well in either case. More information about revelations in the Stevens case are available in the following Wall Street Journal article:
Justice for Ted Stevens, by Ross Colvin – WSJ
** The Justice Department this week took the highly unusual step of replacing the team handling posttrial litigation in the (Stevens) case. This followed last week’s bizarre turn, when the chief of the public integrity section at Justice, William Welch, and his deputy, Brenda Morris — the federal prosecutors who won the Stevens conviction — were held in contempt of court. Judge Emmet Sullivan berated the prosecutors for failing to act on his January 21 demand to deliver internal documents to Mr. Stevens’s attorneys. “That was a court order, that wasn’t a request,” he said. “Is the Department of Justice taking court orders seriously these days?” *** One excuse heard at Justice is that prosecutors didn’t expect Mr. Stevens to get such a quick trial after his July indictment, and were rushed. That raises the more relevant question — why was the Senator indicted so close to an election? *** So what we seem to have here are young lawyers eager to make their reputations by bagging a big-name Senator. Justice rules forbid issuing indictments too close to elections. These columns were tough on Mr. Stevens at the time, but the facts that have since come to light cast real doubt on the case. Though Mr. Stevens was a champion earmarker, the government never alleged much less proved that Veco got anything in return from the Senator. **
(N)either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. – Samuel Adams, essay in The Public Advertiser, Circa 1749