Judge tosses out Stevens conviction: Prosecutors acknowledged mishandling the former senator

Judge tosses out Stevens conviction: Prosecutors acknowledged mishandling the former senator

www.msnbc.msn.com

WASHINGTON - A federal judge dismissed the corruption conviction of former Sen. Ted Stevens on Tuesday and took the rare and serious step of opening a criminal investigation into prosecutors who mishandled the case.

"In nearly 25 years on the bench, I've never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I've seen in this case," U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said.

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Well, there you have it. Despite whether the man was guilty or not, a prosecuting team botching the case will ruin it every time and now he can't be re-tried for the same crimes because of the double-jeopardy rule. If he wasn't guilty, then the prosecution tried to hang the guy on a witch hunt and failed. But it did cost him a senate seat. I wonder what they were thinking? I sure hope some heads roll and people lose their jobs over this. The lead prosecutor witholding evidence ought to do jail time also.

Either way, the Democrats are sure to be happy.

www.msnbc.msn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 7-4-2009 by sos37]

Maybe it was planned this way.

Maybe all they cared about was getting him out of office.

Mission accomplished.

reply to post by jam321


I have a sneaking suspicion the same may happen in Minnesota if the courts allow counting of all ballots and Al Franken loses by a few absentee votes. They'll trump up a few lies about Norm Coleman, open an investigation, maybe a trial, sacrifice a few lawyers who say "oops I mishandled the case" and Franken emerges the victor.

Bloody dishonorable as hell.

reply to post by sos37


Why would he democrats be happy? I'm furious... Mr "Series of Tubes" guy is going to get off scot free?

How does that make me happy?

How do you know he was guilty? The prosecution admitted to mishandling the case.

Sullivan appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Justice Department lawyers who repeatedly mishandled witnesses and withheld evidence from defense attorneys during the monthlong trial that ended with Stevens' conviction in October.

The judge is so concerned with contempt and obstruction on the part of the prosecution that he doesn't even trust internal affairs to handle the investigation!

He said the matter was too serious to be left to an internal investigation by the department, which he said has dragged its feet looking into the misconduct

Isn't Stevens due a fair trial just like every American citizen? The answer is yes he is. The prosecution blew it. We don't even know if "evidence" of the man's guilt was real or manufactured at this point. But we do know that Stevens is out of his Senate seat.

It seems kind of odd that lawyers in a well known case like this, with evidence enough to secure a conviction, would make those kinds of fundamental mistakes.

I would venture to guess that someone gave this case incompetent enough to make that kind of mistake by accident, or a competent lawyer willing to make a case destroying "mistake".

reply to post by sos37


Sure he's due a fair trial.


However you said, "this should make the democrats happy", so I'm trying to figure out why it would do that?

I'm not a democrat, but I am anti-stevens (just because he's an idiot, and I'm an intellectual elitist). And so I'm not "happy" about this situation.

Now, just because I'm not happy about this situation doesn't mean that I think this was a travesty of justice either. I understand the courts prerogatives, and I stand by them as being justice... however I still want to see mr "Series of Tubes" go down in flames, because I can't stand him.



[edit on 7-4-2009 by HunkaHunka]