Rove, Bush and Cheney belong in prison. Not Don Siegelman.

[Octafish]

18. Equal justice under the law?

by H. Brandt Ayers
The Anniston Star, Sunday, March 1, 2015

If there is such a concept as the words written on the pediment of the U.S. Supreme Court building, it is hard to discern in the dramatic difference in the sentences awarded in four high-profile cases.

Last Friday, former Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison on corruption charges. Earlier her husband, former Gov. Bob McDonnell got two years on the same charge.

In February 1994, Alabama Gov. Guy Hunt began serving a five-year probation for illegally pocketing $200,000. The parole board later pardoned Hunt, but no judge would sign the required document.

In 2006, Gov. Don Siegelman was convicted on a charge of corruption and sentenced to seven years in federal prison. He is still in prison.

Two years, a year and a day, probation and…seven years! Who can explain such drastic differences in punishment for alleged misuse of office?

Three who received relatively light sentences each benefitted personally from their acts, and each was a Republican. The only Democrat, Siegelman, didn’t make a nickel from his office but got the harshest sentence.

SNIP...

While Judge Spencer rendered relative mercy to the McDonnells, Alabama District Judge Mark Fuller unleashed Old Testament fury on Don Siegelman.

The former governor was brought into the courtroom shackled hands and feet as if he were some monster accused of unspeakable acts. The Washington Post, which covered the McDonnell trials, mentioned no similar personal indignity.

Siegelman’s crime? He accepted a $500,000 check to a campaign for a lottery whose proceeds would go to education. The donor, Richard Scrushy, was reappointed by the governor to a health regulatory board to which he had been previously appointed by three Republican governors.

If that is a crime, every president who has appointed major contributors to cushy embassy posts ought to be in a federal prison.

The personal indignity and excessive sentence suffered at the hand of District Judge Mark Fuller, a George W. Bush appointee, raises doubts about the temperament of the judge.

CONTINUED...

http://www.annistonstar.com/opinion/article_d6a93f26-bed9-11e4-bd8e-2f5752747fe1.html

Now THAT is a newspaperman.