The following are some links and a New York Times editorial about America's Number One Political Prisoner - Democratic former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. This injustice has been covered on Mike Malloy's show and Air America's Ring of Fire.
He was one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party, until a group of Republicans at the last minute "found" some ballots stashed away in a corner in 2002 that changed the vote count in his re-election bid. Those ballots have never been available for independent examination, and remain sealed today.
The powers that be then started persecuting Siegelman to make sure he would never be able to challenge their control of Alabama in the future. Politically motivated prosecutions occurred by US attorneys. One set of charges was laughed out of court by a Federal judge. However, they found a more friendly judge who had received some nice contracts from the Bush Administration. That judge was under investigation during the trial for a series of improprieties, and he had obvious conflicts of interest. The judge threw Siegelman in jail FOR SEVEN YEARS AND FOUR MONTHS on the trumped-up charge of appointing a man to a State committee after the man had made a campaign contribution to Siegelman. The contribution was actually made to start a State Lottery, not for campaign purposes. There were no allegations that Siegelman received any ilicit funds for his own use.
A Republican attorney has subsequently come forward with charges that Karl Rove and the son of the current governor were involved in this conspiracy.
The prosecutor has refused to cooperate with a Congressional investigation, as detailed in the Harper's articles linked below. Siegelman has not been allowed to speak out in his own defense since the judge ordered him to be taken away in shackles and immediately imprisoned after the conviction.
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"Questions About a Governor's Fall - New York Times Editorial
June 30, 2007
It is extremely disturbing that Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, was hauled off to jail this week. There is reason to believe his prosecution may have been a political hit, intended to take out the state’s most prominent Democrat, a serious charge that has not been adequately investigated. .. If the Justice Department was looking to help Republicans in Alabama, putting away Mr. Siegelman would be a shrewd move. In a state short on popular Democrats, he was elected governor in 1998. He was defeated for re-election in 2002 by just a few thousand votes, in an election marred by suspicious vote tabulations.
The charges Mr. Siegelman was convicted of suggest that he may have been a victim of selective prosecution. He was found to have named a prominent Alabama businessman to a state board in exchange for a contribution to a campaign fund for a state lottery, something Mr. Siegelman supported to raise money for his state’s woefully inadequate public schools. He was not found to have taken any money for himself and many elected officials name people who have given directly to their own campaigns to important positions. The jury dismissed 25 of the original 32 counts against Mr. Siegelman.
The most arresting evidence that Mr. Siegelman may have been railroaded is a sworn statement by a Republican lawyer, Dana Jill Simpson. Ms. Simpson said she was on a conference call in which Bill Canary, the husband of the United States attorney whose office handled the case, insisted that “his girls” would “take care of” Mr. Siegelman. According to Ms. Simpson, he identified his “girls” as his wife, Leura Canary, and another top Alabama prosecutor. Mr. Canary, who has longstanding ties to Karl Rove, also said, according to Ms. Simpson, that he had worked it out with “Karl.”
The idea of federal prosecutors putting someone in jail for partisan gain is shocking. But the United States attorneys scandal has made clear that the Bush Justice Department acts in shocking ways..."
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Here's more:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/6/28/23164/4575http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/7/16/18741/5794http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/16/213656/09http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000805 http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/2007/12/siegelman-speaks-ex-gov-calls-02.html http://www.donsiegelman.org/ http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000708 
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