DOJ Prosecutorial Injustice & Misconduct-- We Need to Be Outraged

This is the transcript of a talk given at the 2009 netroots nation conference.

I'd like to take a moment and thank film director John McTiernan for his assistance with this project.Without his efforts,the research would not have moved forward, and I deeply appreciate that he donated his time and talent to this production.



I'm not a politician.

Until Katrina, I was a business professor and president of a great little college campus in Louisiana.

I stumbled on Paul Krugman's article about the study by Dr. Shields that was presented to Congress in the fall of 2007.... and I simply couldn't believe that no one was paying attention to it.


It's relevance is crucial today as it's in the same bed with the firings of the US Attorneys. The information released by John Conyers and the House Judiciary regarding the political influence and the fingerprint of Karl Rove is finally out for the whole world to see. There's vindication for those US Attorneys who didn't deserve the treatment they received just because they had the honor to not violate their oath to their office...to the Constitution... But then you must ask the real question....

What of their replacements....and what about the ones that did not get fired? That has always been the question that should be asked.

There was an agenda. The Department of Justice was hijacked and used as a political weapon by a group of rogue prosecutors under the direction of Karl Rove in a manner never seen in this country.

What did they do? Look at the Shields Report.

If you don't have this document, please find it. It lists the number of elected officials who were investigated by the DoJ. Over 700 elected officials were investigated or indicted since 2001....85% were Democrats.

When you look more closely, as we did, you will find some startling revelations. One was the likelihood for Democratic elected officials, and those around them, to be tried by Republican judges, namely Bush judges...with the percentages in Swing states ranging from 75 - 100%.

There is a mechanism that is supposed to insure randomness in judge assignment....it just doesn't look like that happened here.

One doesn't have to look further than the gentlemen in the room (Governor Siegelman and Dr. Wecht) and assess the behavior of the judges to whom their cases were assigned to believe the complicity of the federal judges. There are federal judges in this country who should be investigated.

We contacted hundreds of people who were listed in the report and listened to their story....those who not afraid to speak to us and then traveled around the country to meet them.

These interviews which represent about 100 cases represent only a small portion of what has happened in this country. Interestingly enough, they have many things in common. It became apparent that the same thing, the very same thing was happening all over the country...as if there were a play book that had been been crafted and passed out to these rogue US Attorneys...who just happen to be Federalist Society.

The incidences of prosecutorial misconduct are overwhelming. The examples of prosecutorial misconduct, namely Brady violations which got the attention of Eric Holder, are common in many, many cases. For those not familiar with Brady - a Supreme Court case (Brady vs Maryland) that says the prosecution must turn over to the defense any exculpatory or impeaching material that is material to the guilt or innocence or to the punishment of the defendant. To not do so violates due process. Perjured testimony is more commonplace than one would think.

Others improprieties include threatening indictment of family members...their children or their 80 year old parents in order to secure a plea by the defendants. The federal police and the prosecutors threatened to take away children from their parents. The federal police contacted their business associates until they had no business. Financial ruin was a tool used by the DoJ.

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Continued>>>
http://www.opednews.com/articles/DOJ-Prosecutorial-Injustic-by-Gail-Sistrunk-090818-411.html

K & R this important article.

1) Those who were fired or resigned.
2) Those who "went along to get along".
3) Those who went unnoticed by Karl Rove as being unimportant.
4) Those who had enough shit on BushCo* to laugh in Kkkarl's face when threatened.

We need to persuade Obama to pardon these victims and need to see the DoJ clean house.