AP:DA Kerry 70's victories over mob crime and rapist/murders prev.acquited

[papau]

AP's Denise Lavoie sums up Senator Kerry's undercovered legal career -highlights two big cases, one where he successfully prosecuted a man earlier acquitted of murder for rape, and one where he did the same for an organized crime leader who ran gambling rackets in Massachusetts.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040509_563.html

Kerry Wins Prosecutors' Respect With Wins
John Kerry Earned Respect of Fellow Mass. Prosecutors in Late 1970s With Series of Convictions

The Associated Press BOSTON May 9, 2004 — When the Middlesex County district attorney promoted John Kerry to be his top assistant...the George Edgerly case - A career criminal acquitted years earlier in the beheading of his wife -...Edgerly stood accused of rape in 1977 -... Kerry won a conviction - "One by one, the veteran prosecutors in the office went over and shook his hand, and by the end of the night all of the prosecutors were down at John's end of the bar," recalled John Markey, another assistant district attorney at the time. "I'm sure there were some people who hoped he would fall flat on his face, but he really won them over on that case."<snip>

"I was interested in the prospect of the law and trying to enforce it in order to protect people, and just provide the kind of civil society that we all hope for," Kerry told The Associated Press in a recent interview.<snip>

Among the top cases on which Kerry worked was the prosecution of Howie Winter, an organized crime leader who ran gambling rackets in the Boston area and western Massachusetts. Winter was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

"It was enormously gratifying," Kerry said. "It was what I went there to do. It was what the office was supposed to do."<snip>

Kerry spent the next two years in private practice, specializing mostly in medical malpractice and wrongful death litigation. He and his partner won a new trial and, eventually, freedom for George Reissfelder, who spent 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of murder.<snip>

[blm]

1. The media tries to spread the lie that liberals are soft on crime.

Kerry and others like him prove that meme wrong.

[sandnsea]

2. He really is one of the good guys

"Kerry restructured the district attorney's office, securing several million dollars in federal grants to modernize it and add prosecutors. He started a program to help victims and witnesses, particularly rape victims, navigate the judicial system. He also began an organized crime unit, a political corruption task force and a unit aimed at getting top cases to trial within 90 days."

"Kerry spent the next two years in private practice, specializing mostly in medical malpractice and wrongful death litigation. He and his partner won a new trial and, eventually, freedom for George Reissfelder, who spent 15 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of murder."