The shouting has barely died down from the election of Barack Obama—whether it has come from the noisy rounds of tears, or teeth-gnashing or cheers or sobs—when in a quiet courtroom in downtown Atlanta, three judges sat to hear thirty-minutes of oral arguments in the matter of the United States of America v. Scrushy and Siegelman.
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On a warm afternoon in May, near the beginning of a long white-collar trial, Richard Scrushy’s lead attorney, Art Leach, began probing the nature of the government’s investigation, as it related to the man who was on the stand, the prosecution’s star-witness, Nick Bailey. White collar cases can be tedious because there is no dramatic moment where the murder weapon is produced, there is no riveting testimony from the clever guys in the crime lab, where it is shown how physical evidence is linked to the defendants. The facts in a white collar case are centered around documentary evidence, conflicting vantage points and the reliability of stories told by eye witnesses. It is the day after Veterans Day, a holiday originally set aside to commemorate the end of World War I, but was later generalized to honor all veterans who have served our country. Because it fell on Sunday, the banks, some schools and the delivery of the US Mail are shut down today. Courts too. There will be no decisions today. As of Veterans Day, 2007, it has been about four and a half months since Don Siegelman and Richard Scrushy were hauled off to prison, and it has been about four months since emergency appeals were filed on their behalf, appeals that could free them while they await disposition of the appellate process that could take up to two years. |
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