Don Siegelman, Alabama's only progressive governor in a very Red State also served the citizens of Alabama in the other three statewide offices: Secretary of State, Attorney General and Lt. Governor.
As a rising star on the national political scene, he was considered a brilliant, compassionate leader who could begin the process of bringing the South back into the Democratic fold. Within DNC circles, he was being considered as a potential future candidate for the highest national offices.
Almost immediately upon assuming office, Alabama's Republican Attorney General Bill Pryor, who now sits on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (the same court which recently denied his request for a new trial based on prosecutorial misconduct), began a highly-publicized investigation leading to Don's indictment and subsequent acquittal in the Northern District of Alabama, a trial the presiding federal judge declared the greatest miscarriage of justice he had witnessed in his 29 years on the federal bench.
Governor Siegelman's subsequent prosecution in the shopped venue of Alabama's Middle District by the U.S. Attorney wife of his re-election opponent's campaign manager (a long-standing clent of Karl Rove) resulted in his conviction and resulting prison sentence. His trial was presided over by Federal Judge Mark Fuller, a "judge with a grudge" due to Don's investigation of him for Retirement Systems fraud while Fuller was a state district attorney. You may know Mark Fuller as the serial wife-beating, philandering judge who has now resigned his judgeship in disgrace.
Don is now a federal prisoner in Oakdale, Lousiana, where he writes about reforming the criminal justice system. What follows is Don's latest article: The "Convict at All Costs" Mandate Must Change
I’m OK, numbed by the disappointments. Keep in mind this started in March of 1999. I have had a lot of time to get used to fighting for justice.
Disappointed? Surprised? No. Each layer of the justice system holds an umbrella of protection over the misconduct of those on whose foundation they stand.
The system is fine, it is the “convictions at all costs" mandate that has to change.
There is an attitudinal barrier to justice. The mandate, established over decades of Presidents and prosecutors, the public and Congress calling for “hang’em high” justice, has to change.
Our approach to solving crime, a “Lock’em up and throw away the key” mass incarceration mandate, costing billions of dollars for “Wars” on crime and drugs, has resulted in the largest prison population the world has ever known.
We are now finding out through the efforts of The Innocence Project and The Equal Justice Initiative that not only have we gone overboard in the length of sentences but we have also locked up and even executed innocent citizens.
While my case may be only one anomaly in our American Jurisprudence system, in the sense that there was no crime until the judicial decision that sent me to prison, history tells us that many others who are innocent have been convicted.
One common thread that runs throughout is that we allow, even implicitly encourage, U.S. Citizens to be framed.
The best proof of this is when the U.S. Solicitor General, the President’s lawyer, argued to the U.S. Supreme Court on January 4th, 2010: “U.S. Citizens do not have a constitutional right not to be framed”. (Los Angeles Times, legal correspondent David Savage, 1/5/2010) Two men had spent nearly twenty-five years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit and were suing Iowa law enforcement civilly for willfully and intentionally framing them.
The government holds an umbrella of protection over all misconduct, including the willful and intentional use of false testimony to gain a conviction.
Because prosecutors are immune from civil liability, they can pressure witnesses to lie to get convictions. It is typical for prosecutors or investigators to promise “no time in prison” or a lighter sentence in exchange for the testimony that sends people to prison.
That’s what happened in my case.
Nick Bailey, the government’s key witness, told CBS 60 Minutes (2/24/08) that the prosecutors made him write his proposed testimony over and over until he got his story straight. Bailey was a “crook” who was offered “no time in prison” if he “cooperated”. “Cooperation” is the government’s word meaning “say what we want you to say.”
Bailey has now come clean and can be heard in a secretly recorded conversation saying his testimony was “bullshit”, that there “was no agreement” between Mr. Scrushy and me to swap a campaign contribution for an appointment, and that I was “someone who was impossible to bribe.”
Moreover, there was a witness to the cajoling and pressure that led to Bailey finally agreeing to lie for his freedom. Tamarah Grimes, a Department of Justice paralegal, became a federal whistleblower in 2009. She blew the whistle in a formal written complaint and in a letter to then U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The government, the court, the judges, the prosecutors, instead of bringing her in and exposing this exculpatory testimony and evidence, quickly fired her and continue to keep the evidence sealed.
That’s the crime in it all.
The scales of American justice are out of balance. We have to keep our faith in our system and work to change it. For the remainder of my life, this will be my personal fight.
The President, who appoints an Attorney General, the Solicitor General, all U.S. Attorneys and federal judges, can begin to make things right. We should all keep this in mind as the 2016 Presidential election draws near. People should seek a candidate as president who will be committed to truth and justice, not simply looking tough on crime. The President has the power to reset America’s moral compass.
Don E. Siegelman
Governor of Alabama, 1999-2003
Lt. Governor, 1995-1999
Attorney General, 1987-1991
Secretary of State, 1979-1987
Federal Prisoner, June 2018-Final Discharge, June 2021
For more information see: My Website Please like my page on Facebook at Free Don Siegelman, and follow me on Twitter: @DonSiegelman