Larisa Alexandrovna: House Asked To Name Special Prosecutor In Case of Jailed Dem Donor

[Hissyspit]

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Attorney_seeks_special_prosecutor_in_alleged_0125.html

House asked to name special prosecutor in case of jailed Democratic donor

Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Sunday January 25, 2009

The lawyer for the Mississippi attorney named by the the House Judiciary Committee in an investigation into political prosecutions has asked the chairman to appoint a special prosecutor.

Hiram C. Eastland, an attorney for jailed Mississippi trial lawyer Paul Minor, issued a letter to the Chairman of the US House Committee on the Judiciary, John Conyers (D-MI), asking for an independent special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate alleged political prosecutions conducted by the Bush administration’s Department of Justice.

According to a copy obtained by Raw Story, the letter was sent in mid-December. In it, Eastland referred to a letter (pdf) sent by the Judiciary Committee on May 9 of last year to then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey, outlining its previous requests for documents concerning “selective or politically motivated federal prosecutions” and expressing concern that it had not yet receiving them.

“Although it has been eight months since OPR and OIG received your Committee’s directive,” Eastland wrote prior to President Barack Obama’s inauguration, “no specific response regarding Paul Minor has been forthcoming, and it now appears doubtful a report will be made before officials from the Bush Administration and the Attorney General leave office.”

“Because the Department of Justice has apparently abdicated its responsibility to investigate whether Paul Minor was prosecuted out of political motivations,” he added, “I respectfully suggest serious action needs to be taken to protect the rights of Mr. Minor who remains wrongfully incarcerated in a federal prison while his wife of forty years is dying of cancer.”

The letter can be read here.

Background on Minor’s Case

Paul Minor, a once-prominent trial lawyer, had become Mississippi’s largest Democratic donor after making millions from a 1998 settlement with tobacco companies for costs incurred by Medicare from smoking-related illnesses. Many Southern Republicans had allied themselves with the tobacco industry and they feared and resented the ability of the Democratic Party to profit from the settlement.

For that reason, political motivations appeared to be in play when Dunnica Lampton, the Bush-appointed US Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, charged Minor with bribery in 2003 on the basis of loan guarantees made to three judges, former state Supreme Court Justice, Oliver E. Diaz Jr. and former judges Wes Teel and John Whitfield.

Minor’s first trial resulted in an acquittal on some charges and a deadlocked jury on other charges. Justice Diaz was acquitted on all charges. The original 2003 trial, however, was immediately followed by the unsealing of fresh charges against all three men.

Even though prosecutors were unable to prove that Minor had bribed the judges in exchange for favors from the bench, his second trial resulted in a conviction.

Minor was sentenced to an 11-year prison term and over $4 million in fines and restitution. In an Oct. 22, 2007 letter (pdf) to Rep. Conyers, Minor cited former White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove, as being involved in his alleged political prosecution, though he offered no formal evidence to support the claim.

In August of last year, US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Priscilla Owen upheld a lower court ruling denying Minor release from prison while he appeals his case.

Raw Story reported at that time that Judge Owen had been a client of Karl Rove prior to his appointment to a White House position and was nominated to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals with his support.

In the original lower court ruling of September 2006, a judge ruled that Minor had violated the terms of his appeal or original trial bond by drinking excessively and by violating the terms of his house arrest.

Minor subsequently acknowledged that the pressure of his trial, coupled with his wife’s illness, had caused him to drink, but insisted that he left his home to meet with a hurricane expert solely for insurance purposes and only after his probation officer had failed to respond to his request for approval. The Department of Justice contended that this incident proved Minor presented “a danger to the community.”

MORE

[peacetalksforall]

1. What is it about Rove that drives associate buddies to go to extremes that jump out

at mere citizens as bizarre, ,stacked, but extremes that don't seem to be able to get the attention of the only people who can do anything?

[Hissyspit]

2. People have to put some pressure on here and maybe write to him, because, according to Larisa

"he is emotionally dying in there."

[merh]

4. He isn't the only victim of this political prosecution

there were two co-defendants - one the sole surviving parent of a teen boy that is living with guardians, the other, the husband of a woman with MS, he was her care giver.

Minor and his family are victims of this as are the co-defendats, Whitfield and Teel.

Teel and Whitfield have limited resources, Teel is represented by public defenders, Whitfield is representing himself while incarcerated. All three have been in prison waiting the appeals court to hear their case.

[The Wielding Truth]

3. Minor gets 11-year prison term and over $4 million in fines

and restitution and Rove goes free????? No way.