Jailed Democrat contributor and Mississippi trial lawyer Paul Minor's DOJ prosecutor was accused of bribery this week.
In an attempt to simplify and sum up what has been researched and written by Scott Horton, Larisa Alexandrovna and Roger Schuler about this OTHER Southern state, corrupt DOJ selective political persecution, I posted
GOP “Justice” In Alabama & Mississippi: Paul Minor & the Siegelman & Shuler Cases (Help Mrs. Minor). You can read that post here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3156333Another Mississippi blogger
Cotton Mouth (Hat Tip to him or her) has pointed me to the latest on the Paul Minor case: "After the U.S. House Judiciary Committee released its report on corruption within the Department of Justice and the White House in political prosecutions, the
Jackson Free Press called Bill Minor, and here's what he had to say."
For other background on the case, read "
A Minor Injustice" by Scott Horton (this link is a reprinted in the JFP of the Harper's article) or the Sun Herald newspaper's article from last week: "
Was Diaz, Minor prosecution political?". There are plenty of other research links in my earlier DU post, as well. PLEASE recommend and kick.
Bill Minor: ‘I Hate to Be So Blunt’http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/bill_minor_i_hate_to_be_so_bluntMississippi journalist and columnist Bill Minor spoke with Adam Lynch of the Jackson Free Press yesterday about his views on the prosecution of his son, Paul Minor, and
discussed the newly disclosed information that his son's prosecutor, Robert Coughlin, is now under federal investigation. The JFP had called Minor for response to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee's report last week about possible selective prosecution in Mississippi and other states by the Bush administration's Justice Department. His remarks follow, verbatim.
For Paul to be held in federal prison in Pensacola before his appeal has been considered by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, while his wife of 40 years is 1,500 miles away fighting a losing battle with brain and lung cancer is an outrage. This is not the American system of justice for which I fought in World War II or Paul fought for in Vietnam.
The jury that convicted Paul in April 2007 was never allowed by the judge to hear that he was a Vietnam veteran and won the bronze star medal for valor. Immediately upon his conviction, he was shackled and sent to jail, without being allowed to remain free on bond or given the opportunity to arrange his family affairs. Paul and Silvia’s 110-year-old house in Ocean Springs was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina, with nothing but a barren slab left. They have been unable to make any insurance claim.
A former Arizona U.S. attorney (Grant Woods) declared (on a February 2008 episode of "60 Minutes") regarding the case of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman that the case was highly unusual. In fact, he said he had never seen such a case in which a person convicted of a white-collar crime was shackled and immediately taken off to prison while under bond and before his appeal.
Twenty-six former U.S. attorneys have since spoken up for Siegelman, who has been recently released on bond by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
It is clear from recent events that the U.S. Department of Justice was corrupt. Just yesterday, the former deputy director of the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice, Robert Coughlin who prosecuted Paul, was accused of taking bribes to go easy on an investigation of the notorious Jack Abramoff, the prominent Republican lobbyist who is now in jail for paying off several members of the US Congress.
Knowingly or not, Judge Henry Wingate became a tool for the corrupt DOJ, rejecting use of 80 percent of the evidence used in Paul’s first trial when he, along with Justice Oliver Diaz was acquitted, and refusing to allow evidence from expert witnesses who could have shown that the judge’s decisions and rulings in the two earlier cases of so called bribery of judges John Whitfield and (Wes) Teel were exactly correct.
I had
a high regard for Wingate when he was first appointed to the bench 25 years ago, but
I do not anymore.I hate to be so blunt.
COMMENTS
Here's yesterday's New York Times story about the new woes of Robert Coughlin, who prosecuted Paul Minor:
Prosecutors accused Mr. Coughlin in court papers filed Monday of providing assistance from 2001 to 2003 to a lobbyist and the lobbyist’s firm while receiving gifts from the firm and discussing prospective employment there. The document filed Monday is known as an information and is normally filed as part of a plea deal.
The lobbyist is not named in the court document, but The Associated Press has previously reported that Mr. Coughlin was lobbied during the period in question by Kevin Ring, a member of Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying team who is also under investigation. At the time, Mr. Coughlin worked for the Justice Department’s office of legislative affairs and its office of intergovernmental and public liaison, and Mr. Ring worked for Mr. Abramoff’s Greenberg Traurig firm.
Both Mr. Ring and Mr. Coughlin worked together for John Ashcroft when he was a Republican senator from Missouri, before he became attorney general in 2001.
The investigation of Mr. Coughlin’s conduct was handled by federal prosecutors in Maryland because of his ties at Justice Department headquarters. posted by ladd on 04/23/08 at 11:59 AM 
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