ALABAMA: Bingo JURY Gives Obama Justice Department a KICK In The CROTCH

[Segami]

:smoke: :smoke: :smoke:


" The era of political prosecutions more or less started in Alabama with the Don Siegelman case during the George W. Bush years. Perhaps it ended here yesterday, in the Obama years, when a federal jury in Montgomery rendered no convictions in an electronic bingo/vote buying trial.

Alabama bingo trial verdicts: Not guilty, undecided


".....MONTGOMERY -- A lawyer for VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor proclaimed it a "great day" for the defendants in the State House vote-buying case as all nine walked out of the courthouse without a single conviction.

Jurors deadlocked on some counts and returned not guilty verdicts on all others in the case accusing McGregor, several legislators and lobbyists, a casino spokesman and a legislative employee of offering or accepting bribes in connection with a gambling bill last year.

"It's a great day. We walk out of the courthouse and we go home," McGregor lawyer Joe Espy said as he and McGregor emerged from the federal courthouse to be greeted by a sea of media microphones...."

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/08/alabama_bingo_trial_verdicts_n.html

Jurors deadlocked on some charges and found not guilty on all others. That's nine defendants, 37 counts, and zero convictions, for those of you keeping score at home. It was as if the jury sent the U.S. Justice Department this resounding message: "Take your bogus political prosecutions and jam them up your . . . " Well, you get the idea.


Andrew Kreig, of the D.C.-based Justice Integrity Project, called it "one of the most remarkable setbacks nationally" for federal prosecutors in decades. Kreig also nailed it when he wrote, "this was a humiliation of epic proportions for the Obama Justice Department and its Bush DOJ holdovers." Kreig goes on to outline the bumbling that accompanied the investigation:



".....The government, including the Republican state administration of two-term Gov. Bob Riley spent vast amounts in its investigation, prompted in part by Riley’s public stance of opposing gambling. Riley last year sent 135 police vehicles on a dawn raid to shut down the Country Crossing electronic bingo casino in Dothan, for example. That police raid proved to be a public relations disaster that in effect previewed this week's. A YouTube video of the raid showed that the casino was already closed upon the arrival of what became known as the "Riley's Raiders" police armada, which seemed more suitable for quelling an armed urban riot than raiding a bingo parlor. On top of all the planning that must have gone into the 4 a.m. operation, troopers arrived without a search warrant and therefore had to return to HQ on that basis also...."


cont'



http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2011/08/bingo-jury-gives-obama-justice.html




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[xchrom]

1. Interesting. Nt

[hedgehog]

2. Was this prosecution already in motion when Obama took office?

If the Obama Justice Department had told officials in Alabama to drop the case, would that have been seen as letting Democrats break the law with impunity?

[scheming daemons]

3. don't let reality get in the way of a good Obama bash fest

[sabrina 1]

5. What difference would it make? If it was a political prosecution

it should have been stopped, regardless of when it started. Don't we care about right and wrong in this party anymore?

[hedgehog]

6. It's easy at this point to say it was a political persecution, but

my point is to suggest that if this was started before Obama took office, then he would have been accused of political favoritism if he'd withdrawn the case. The fact that the jury deadlocked over several charges suggests that there was at least some reason to believe these people were guilty. From what I can make out, it sounds like some people were being bribed to favor gambling by Alabama gambling interests while others were bribed to oppose gambling by Mississippi and Indian gambling interests.

[sabrina 1]

4. I don't know the answer to that question, but sometimes you

just have to do what is right, regardles of what 'people think'. It's amazing too how when someone has the courage to do that and can speak from the heart about their reasons why, the exact opposite of what might expected often happens.

Now, I hope they will step up to the plate on the Don Siegelman case which has to be the most egregious abuse of the judicial system ever.

It is a crime that this great Democrat has been persecuted for so long as a result of Karl Rove and his minions. And even more of a disgrace that we thought all these injustices would be dealt with by supporting a Democratic Majority. We are still waiting for the restoration of habeas corpus and for justice for Don Siegelman.

[hedgehog]

7. I had the notion that Siegelman was convicted on trumped up charges.

However, I am not familiar with the case, so i did a quick check of Wiki. Not knowing all the ins and outs, I could come away from Wiki thinking Siegelman belongs in jail. Someone donated to Siegelman's campaign for A, Siegelman appointed him to the Board for B. There may be no connection at all between the two actions, or it could have been quid pro quo. I suspect Siegelman did nothing wrong, or at least nothing that is beyond commonly accepted practice at every level of government in this country. More than anything else, the problem goes back to the money spent on campaigns.

[sabrina 1]

8. Karl Rove orchestrated the prosecution of Siegelman.

It was a political prosecution and no, he did nothing wrong. Even a Republican blew the whistle on what went on regarding that prosecution and it is wrong for the DOJ, especially considering the conflict of the judge in the case, not to have intervened by now. They intervened in the Stevens case where there was little doubt of wrong-doing, but technical problems with the trial, and they were right to do. However it has been noted that in this case, where there was no wrong-doing, AND definitely problems with the court, they have refused to intervene.