Robert H. Jackson reminded us in his speech “The Federal Prosecutor” that our society can never tolerate a situation in which prosecutors investigate individuals rather than crimes. When this occurs, the basic principles of our criminal justice system are subverted and the nation is put on the path towards tyranny. The damage is compounded when a prosecutor uses his vast powers, held under a public trust, to attack his political enemies. But all signs point to this being the case in Michigan, like other cases in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Wisconsin. The assault in the Michigan courtroom is not on attorney Geoffrey Fieger. It is on the bedrock principles of our criminal justice system.
In fact the pattern of politically-instigated investigation, prosecution and recusal in this case perfectly matches the Siegelman case in the Middle District of Alabama, in which the Justice Department continues tenaciously to fight FOIA requests and even the document production demands of the United States Congress. At this point it is plain that the Justice Department is not guided by policies and principles in its posture, but by an earnest resolve to keep hidden the dark truths that an entire nation now suspects and which will come to the front burner as soon as the results of the Department’s own investigation into the misconduct of Attorney General Gonzales become public. It’s time to shine a bright and sanitizing light down the crevice of these prosecutions and let the truth be known.
Read the entire article:
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/01/hbc-90002241
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