Slate- Pickering A Fight

[LoneStarLiberal]

<http://slate.msn.com/id/2086846/>

"The Justice Department prosecuted Swan along with two other men after he got drunk and burned a large wooden cross on the lawn of an interracial couple in his Mississippi hometown. His co-defendants (one had a low IQ, and the other was 17) agreed to plead guilty and got no jail time. Swan refused the prosecutor's offer and went to trial in Pickering's courtroom. He was convicted, and the jury found that he had acted out of racial animus. That meant a five-year mandatory sentence on top of two and a half years for the crime itself. But based on the testimony at trial, Pickering concluded that the cross-burning was the 17-year-old's idea, not Swan's. To the judge, that meant seven years-plus was unfair. Remarkably, Pickering lobbied to reduce Swan's sentence by hounding the prosecutors in the case and complaining to a friend—a top official at the Justice Department. The prosecutors eventually agreed to drop some of the charges against Swan—despite the fact that the jury had already found him guilty of them. Swan ended up spending just 27 months in prison."

Stupidity always has accomplices, right?

[TacticalPeek]

1. Asscroft is hunting soft judges like him...

guess he better check the Senate Judiciary Committee, or presidential appointments list.