Republican Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska was convicted last year of basically lying on an election form about improper gifts he received. Today, US Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the charges against Stevens would be dismissed and no new trial sought. A law abiding citizen's first reaction might be outrage that the crooked politician got off.
Now I certainly feel no sympathy for a corrupt politician who would take illegal gifts or contributions and then lie about it. But our righteous anger should be directed at the overzealous prosecutor who put making a name for himself over the cause of justice. The prosecutors at the heart of the scandal failed to turn over documents to the defense attorneys and redacted exculpatory information from witness statements. In other words, they only gave Stevens' attorneys what they decided to give them, and blacked-out entire parts of statements that could have shown Stevens was not guilty. The prosecutors were even found in contempt by the trial judge for their antics.
Ted Stevens wasn't the only victim of the abusive prosecutor--our system of justice suffered. When prosecutors put conviction score-keeping ahead of the truth, we get this kind of result.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100692719
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102589818
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