Former Alabama Governor Deserves A Pardon
A Letter from former NY Attorney General Bob Abrams on behalf of hundreds of other former AGs and citizens.
Earlier this year, in a historically unprecedented undertaking, a bipartisan group of 112 former state attorneys general signed a letter to President Obama, urging that he pardon former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. The Siegelman case demands action, based on a sordid politically inspired prosecution. After a careful review of the facts, this group of Republicans and Democrats from virtually every state in the Union felt compelled to voice their strong concern.
Alabama Governor Don Siegelman is nearing completion of his incarceration resulting from a 6 1/2 year prison sentence. Siegelman was convicted under a theory of bribery never used, before or since, in the history of American jurisprudence.
The investigation of Governor Siegelman began a mere 12 weeks into his administration and continued unabated for over 6 years, by both the middle and northern district US Attorneys offices in Alabama.
During his term of office from 1999–2003, no charges were brought against Siegelman, but the drumbeat of negative media attention surrounding the investigation took its toll. He lost the 2002 Governor’s race in the closest Gubernatorial election in Alabama history.
Siegelman was subsequently indicted in 2004 in Alabama’s Northern District, with the case being thrown out by a federal judge on the first day of trial. The trial judge, now retired federal judge U.W. Clemon, characterized the charges against Siegelman as “the most unfounded criminal case over which I presided in my entire judicial career” of nearly 30 years.
Not to be deterred, the pursuit of Siegelman was ramped up in the Middle District of Alabama where the US Attorney was the wife of the campaign manager of Siegelman’s opponent in the upcoming Governor’s race. Siegelman was again indicted and this time brought to trial one month before the Gubernatorial primary election.
Governor Siegelman’s alleged offense? Accepting a contribution to a state lottery campaign to raise funds enabling students in Alabama to obtain a college education. Siegelman received no personal benefit, no financial gain, not a single penny and there was no evidence that he expressly promised anything in return for the contribution.
In just one of many highly questionable acts committed during the pursuit of Governor Siegelman he was refused release pending appeal, and, as the attorneys general stated “in a final salvo of grotesque inequity ordered shackled in handcuffs and leg irons following his sentencing hearing” as he was led from the court room.
The years following his imprisonment have brought to light many injustices committed during the investigation, indictment, trial and conviction of Siegelman. For example, the trial judge delayed releasing the official trial transcript for almost a full year, rendering Siegelman unable to begin the appeal process, until finally ordered to do so by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals; the Bush Justice Department discovered, but failed to disclose evidence of ex parte communication between the trial judge and the prosecution team; and the Office of Professional Responsibility at the Department of Justice discovered email communication from 2002 between a prosecutor and the campaign of Siegelman’s political opponent but did not disclose this fact to Siegelman’s defense team. According to a DOJ whistleblower, the lead witness against Siegelman, who faced decades in prison for extortion and kickbacks was interviewed more than 70 times and was persuaded into remembering events that he clearly did not recall and was made to write his testimony over and over until his testimony was the way the prosecutors wanted it.
The letter that the former attorneys general sent to President Obama stated, “The dark cloud of suspicion over the government’s investigation and prosecution of Governor Siegelman has been well documented, as in the April 2008 report of the Unites States House of Representatives committee on the Judiciary. Although the Report called for an “honest and complete accounting” of the multitude of alleged improprieties in Governor Siegelman’s case, no such accounting has ever been done.”
Newspaper editorials and national commentators across the political spectrum, including George Will and Jeffrey Toobin, have found the Siegelman case to be wrought with wrongdoing, political motivation, and gross injustice.
The letter the former attorneys general sent also focused on the rogue judge who presided over the trial: “Indeed, Judge Fuller issued numerous specious pro prosecution rulings at trial…In August 2015 Judge Fuller resigned following his arrest on domestic violence charges, and one month later the Judicial Conference of The United States found that Judge Fuller ‘engaged in conduct that might constitute one or more grounds for impeachment under Article II of the United States Constitution including, among other things, by making false statements to The Chief Judge of the Eleventh Circuit’”.
The letter further stated, “Although nine years have passed Governor Siegelman’s unjust conviction continues to eat away at the integrity of the justice system. Many legal scholars as well as the public at large believe that the prosecution of Governor Siegelman was a perversion of Justice. In his 1833 Commentaries on the Constitution, Justice Story explained that the power to pardon is ‘indispensable under the most common administration of the law by human tribunals; since, otherwise, men would sometimes fall a prey to the vindictiveness of accusers; the inaccuracy of testimony; and the fallibility of jurors and courts.’ The tarnished prosecution and conviction of Governor Siegelman cries out for the exercise of the President’s pardon power. The years that Governor Siegelman has spent behind bars cannot be reclaimed. We believe, however, that this relief to Governor Siegelman even as his imprisonment is nearing its completion will reassure the public that the legal system can never be allowed to provide a safe haven for injustice.”
The damage done to Governor Siegelman’s reputation can never be repaired. The pain suffered by his wife and children is indelible and incalculable. The stain of this injustice should be removed.
Robert Abrams is the former Attorney General of New York and is a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP.
