Power Talks, A Tale Of Two Criminals WITH UPDATED COVERAGE
UPDATE. July 4, Al Sharpton will be in Metro Atlanta tomorrow to get some face time contrasting the Libby commutation and the Genarlow Wilson incarceration discussed below. I just hate it when Al reads my blog, gets on a plane and gets the press coverage for what I said. Also makes me wonder if I'm right.
Scooter Libby isn’t going to prison. President Bush “commuted” his thirty month sentence saying it was excessive.
Genarlow Wilson is sitting in a prison cell in Georgia serving a ten-year sentence for having had oral sex with a girl, then fifteen, when he was seventeen. The gravamen of his crime? Though the sex was consensual, she being fifteen, she could not consent as a legal matter. His sentence is ten years, minimum. He’s a bit over two years into it.
These are not really two comparable cases. But in a way they are. The cases speak to politics and power.
Scooter Libby was, is and will be a water boy for the powerful in politics. He took one for the team of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The lame duck President decided that a $250,000 fine and a felony conviction were sufficient punishment for Libby. Being a lawyer, he will lose his license to practice law. He will sign on with some think tank and earn more than he made as a government official. I’m betting that his signing bonus will exceed the fine.
I can’t really develop a big dislike for Scooter. He’s a loyal soldier that kept his mouth shut and now will be rewarded for serving the politically powerful.
Down here in Georgia, politics are just a bit different. Even if our Governor, Sonny Perdue (he used to be a Democrat, till he realized he had a shot at power if he turned Republican) worked the same loyalty game that the President does, Genarlow would still be in jail.
You see, Genarlow was not a loyal minion. He was a young, dumb, horny kid. After his conviction, the Georgia Legislature, a group of mostly white, right-wing religious, conservative old guys realized the law he was convicted under was totally stupid. They changed the law. Genarlow would today get something like a youthful offender sentence.
Trouble is, the new law isn’t retroactive. There’s a bunch of legal wrangling going on right now. The way to solve it is for our esteemed Governor to commute or pardon. Ain’t going to happen. Got that Southern race thing going. Oh, I forgot to tell you, Genarlow is a black kid. No political upside to letting the kid go with a two-year lesson about what happens when you let the testosterone get the better of you. Most importantly, Genarlow wasn’t carrying Sonny’s water when he went down. No political pay back is in order.
At least the President has a set of balls. Sonny? He thinks he has an outside chance of being the Republican nominee for VP next year. Genarlow who?
10 comments:
I certainly hope all those people who were so outraged at Bill Clinton's lies, and who vociferously criticized him during the impeachment process will step up and denounce this latest maneuver. I mean, perjury is still *wrong*, no?
The Genarlow Wilson thing is beyond stupid, but everyone seems to have dug in their heels, and common sense is nowhere to be found.
I don't think Scooter knew anything to keep his mouth shut about. But they were determined to crucify someone, and Barabas was already free.
The boy should never have been convicted in the first place, and the law that convicted him should have been done away with long ago.
Two men, two injustices. That's what I think I see, anyway.
To respond to Fermi and Steve, perjury is wrong and is criminal. Libby for his boss Cheney had an agenda and was playing the media. He got caught up in this decade or so's newest low level crime, lying to an investigator. When prosecuters want you and can't get you on anything else, they hang you with making a false statement to an investigator. Tell the story two different ways and you are hooked.
So, whether or not Libby knew anything significant, he tripped up telling what he did know and got snagged. As I said, I can't work up a big case of rightious anger.
I really enjoy your posts and actually came over here to see if you had written about the two kidnapped lawyers in your area. But I do disagree with one part (and I admit it is personal opinion based on "personal" experience)...the president isn't the courageous man I once thought he was. I was proud of him in the aftermath of 9-11...he led us through our grief. Then he turned his mindset to Iraq. Where is the one who attacked us, Bin Laden?
Are we really surprised he gave Scooter a pat on the hand? Cheney shot a guy by "accident" (of course) yet do you know there was a Marine prosecuted for shooting an Iraqi who wasn't armed...because he acted in the EXACT SAME MANNER as the one the day before...who killed the Marine's comrade?
There are two forms of justice...Congress and the rest of us. One of the most crooked men in America sits as our Vice President. I can guarantee you he'll never make President...we all wake up sometime.
"we all wake up sometime"...when, is my question, when will that be?
Wait: Didn't I read that the Genarlow Wilson conviction was thrown out and the state AG was appealing it? All the AG has to do is decide that there's 'more serious crime to which he must devote the scarce resources of his high office' and honor would be served, right?
As for Mr. Libby -- not commenting on the politics -- I have a problem with making it a crime to lie to the Feds. (Bi-partisan moment: This is how they got Democrat Martha Stewart, too.)
And, actually, in both cases the indictments came after the Feds had first decided that no other crime was committed.
In La Stewart's case it was determined that she'd not engaged in insider trading; in the case of Mr. Libby it was determined that no laws were broken in revealing that Ms. Plame worked for the CIA.
So I agree we should all be cooperative and helpful to our overworked and often underpaid law enforcement officers -- but, if we do fib, we shouldn't risk going to the slam. That's very, very scary.
Have a glorious 4th.
Hey Curmudgeon, the current status of Wilson, briefly and without benefit of knowing a thing about criminal law is:
A trial court judge granted his habeas petition on constitutional grounds. The Georgia AG, as you note, decided he had a "duty" to appeal, wrongly. The DA and the AG would not agree to bond. Though the AG did request an expedited appeal, which was denied by the GA Supremes. The trial court judge, not the habeas judge, decided that there was no bail available on the "appeal" of Wilson's original sentence, though the AG was appealing the habeas.
As close as I can tell we have two competing statutes. You don't get bail after conviction, but bail is available if the state appeals your habeas win.
If anyone other than Curmudgeon has read this far, the solution is for the Governor to do what is right, something he has no intention of doing.
As to Scootergate, lies are legend, getting caught is another matter. I'm torn between your view and the view that lying, under oath, is criminal.
The prosecutors' recent tactic of getting you for the fib as you call it, leads to the baby lawyer, Monica Goodling's election to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights, while saying she has nothing to hide. When I heard the argument, I was on my way to a hearing. In the Courtroom, the Judge, having Internet, commented that that was an ingenious solution to the problem of talking when you are a target, against whom the government doesn't have much leverage.
Anybody still reading?
Hey Curmudgeon, the current status of Wilson, briefly and without benefit of knowing a thing about criminal law is:
A trial court judge granted his habeas petition on constitutional grounds. The Georgia AG, as you note, decided he had a "duty" to appeal, wrongly. The DA and the AG would not agree to bond. Though the AG did request an expedited appeal, which was denied by the GA Supremes. The trial court judge, not the habeas judge, decided that there was no bail available on the "appeal" of Wilson's original sentence, though the AG was appealing the habeas.
As close as I can tell we have two competing statutes. You don't get bail after conviction, but bail is available if the state appeals your habeas win.
If anyone other than Curmudgeon has read this far, the solution is for the Governor to do what is right, something he has no intention of doing.
As to Scootergate, lies are legend, getting caught is another matter. I'm torn between your view and the view that lying, under oath, is criminal.
The prosecutors' recent tactic of getting you for the fib as you call it, leads to the baby lawyer, Monica Goodling's election to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights, while saying she has nothing to hide. When I heard the argument, I was on my way to a hearing. In the Courtroom, the Judge, having Internet, commented that that was an ingenious solution to the problem of talking when you are a target, against whom the government doesn't have much leverage.
Anybody still reading?
You made me read that twice!
Now, I've never had -- and never want to have -- the privilege of being interviewed by the FBI so I wouldn't know for certain: Since when is an interview with the gendarmes conducted under oath?
I'm just a civil law guy... but I could have sworn (weak pun the result of no other immediately available word choice and not deliberate intent to inflict injury) that the Constitution protects people from being forced to testify -- i.e. speak under oath -- therefore FBI interviews presumably aren't conducted under oath.
Is that right?
So -- aside from something you may, in the proper observance of your religious traditions, have to confess to your clergyman -- where is the sin in fibbing to the Feds?
Hence the problem with me knowing nothing about criminal law.
I'm going to talk to a guy I practice with and get the low down.
I may, probably did, misspeak about under oath. I think there are crimes about lying to the police, prosecutors, etc.
I'll let you know what I find out.
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