As much talk as there has been about the War on Women, I'm wondering if there's another, more fundamental war going on--the war on the right to a fair trial. Numerous actions by Republican or Republican-appointed prosecutors have me wondering.
The latest instance is the disgusting Republican Governors Association ad slamming Vincent Sheheen, who is seeking a rematch against Nikki Haley in South Carolina, for having the nerve to work as a defense attorney. The implicit message? Defense attorneys are ipso facto morally unfit for office. That sentiment has been condemned across the spectrum. Even the lawyer for the gubernatorial campaign of Chris Christie--the RGA president, mind you--called the ad a "disgrace.". This comes on the heels of the nomination of Debo Adegbile to head the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division running aground after Republicans slammed the role of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in the defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal. They raised such a stink about it behind the scenes among law enforcement in the Philadelphia area that Pennsylvania's Bob Casey and Delaware's Chris Coons joined five red-state Democrats in voting against the nomination.
Then there's the list of trials where the defendants were manifestly guilty, only to have the proceedings derailed because the prosecution essentially shredded the Constitution in order to win convictions. Ted Stevens was clearly guilty of failing to disclose improper gifts, but after it emerged that the prosecution had knowingly allowed the star witness to perjure himself, there was no option except to effectively vacate the guilty verdict. Then there's the Blackwater shooting case, which was built on statements that the guards had to give to State Department investigators--a blatant Fifth Amendment violation that could not be ignored. Most recently, the convictions in the Danziger Bridge case were tossed out after it was discovered federal prosecutors were using NOLA.com's message boards to engage in high-tech witness intimidation and jury tampering.
These cases look pretty outrageous by themselves. But taken together? At risk of sounding like I have a tinfoil hat on my head, I have to wonder if there's a trend.