Justice Department Admits New Prosecution Mistakes, Seeks Release Of 2 Alaska Officials

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

7:17 PM EDT, June 4, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder asked a court Thursday to release two imprisoned former Alaska state lawmakers after the Justice Department found prosecutors improperly handled evidence in their trials on corruption charges.

The move is the second embarrassing retreat for Justice Department prosecutors since the conviction of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens was tossed out of court in April.

That prompted an internal inquiry into the government lawyers who handled the Stevens case, and officials said Thursday there also would be an investigation of how the cases of the two Alaska state lawmakers were handled. Most of the prosecution team is the same for all three cases.

Now, Holder is asking a federal appeals court to send the cases of former Alaska House Speaker Peter Kott and former state Rep. Victor Kohring back to the trial judge. The attorney general made the request after finding prosecutors had failed to turn over evidence to the defense.

Similar errors sank the case against Stevens, at the time the Senate's longest-serving Republican.


Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/sns-ap-us-pipeline-bribe,0,7743713.story

[truthisfreedom]

1. Plants, who threw the cases on purpose.

No doubt about it. They were paid off or arrangements were made so that they'd bungle these cases.

[Ian David]

3. No shit. n/t

[Wizard777]

2. Mr. Holder is doing well in restoring the Integrity of the DOJ thus far.

But he still has a way to go.

[LiberalFighter]

5. He needs to fire the ones responsible for the mishandling.

[Arctic Dave]

4. Damn the DOJ. These guys are as guilty of corruption as it gets.

How do you screw up a gimme of a prosecution. These guys all but wrote a diary of their thievery.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. "Loyal Bushies" at DOJ did that in several big name, big $$ cases.

At least here they will have a re-trial, if I read it correctly.

Our tax dollars at work.