Larisa Alexandrovna: Supreme Court Ruling May Not Help Democrats Targeted By Bush US Attorneys

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http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0628/supreme-court-ruling-overturn-conviction-paul-minor

Supreme Court ruling may not help Democrats targeted by Bush US Attorneys

By Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane
Monday, June 28th, 2010 -- 9:20 am

Decision might apply if cases are taken up by the Supreme Court on appeal; lawyers have mixed reactions

A unanimous Supreme Court ruling last Thursday, which set aside the conviction of former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling on a charge of honest-services wire fraud, may not help the cause of either former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman or Mississippi attorney Paul Minor, who were convicted on similar charges. Siegelman and Minor have been the subject of an extensive Raw Story series exploring political prosecution in the southern United States.

The honest services fraud statute has routinely been used against public officials or corporate executives accused of using their positions to benefit themselves at the expense of the public or stockholders. The charge of theft of services has been widely regarded as too vaguely defined to constitute a crime, and the case involving Skilling had been closely watched for that reason.

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Former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz Jr., however, told Raw Story during a Friday phone call that the ruling does not seem to help either Minor or Siegelman or even address either case.

"The recent Supreme Court ruling, it does not address the situation of Minor, Siegelman and their cases," said Diaz, who himself was a co-defendent in the Minor case but was eventually acquitted of all charges. "The court said the honest services statute can apply to cases of bribery and kickbacks, but it has not clarified how the vague wording of the statute applies to honest services cases," Diaz continued. "Now the court will have the opportunity to specifically apply the honest services statute to cases where bribery is alleged, if they agree to hear the Minor and Siegelman cases."

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"The Skilling indicates that our Supreme Court is taking a hard look at the Honest Services statute," Kilbourn stated. "Siegelman's case also involves important First Amendment issues, which should heighten the Court's concern about statutes which criminalize seemingly protected activity, such as contributing to causes one believes in -- like in this case, the Alabama Education Lottery which was an important issue in Alabama at that time."

When the bribery charges against Minor were overturned by the Court of Appeals last December, law professor Scott Horton told Raw Story that "on Monday the Supreme Court heard argument on whether the honest-services fraud statute is constitutional. And tallying up the comments made by the justices at the argument, it's clear that a solid majority of the justices think the honest-services fraud statute is unconstitutional. ... It will take a few months for this to work its way out, but it's clear that Minor and his co-defendants are on their way home."

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