The US government is apparently at it again. I know that these notes sometimes come off as some kind of SupportZine for Scrushy-Siegelman, and it is never my intention to do so, at least not as any kind of display of blind faith and loyalty. But the government is making it difficult. It is my sincere hope that the case will be tried by a presentation of the facts and not by the over-the-top hyperbole of legal teams or the staccato sound-bites of the press.
Continue Reading–83 words [...]
|
|||||
|
The government, frothing at the mouth with frustration that gets spit out in the ooze of do-overs, is taking shots at Mike Martin’s and Ken Livesay’s sentences, as well as the more publicized example of government excess, the wistful reverberating blasts they’re taking at Scrushy and Siegelman. We want to believe that our government is generally acting in our best interests and on our behalf, and we generally count on them to solve problems that face our nation. When there are corporate scandals, we expect the government to interdict and set us back on the right course. Those of us who have been alive long enough know that our government is not without problems and that our hope for redemption is attached to a flawed system at best. But we like to think, we like to dream, that the men and women who are toiling on or behalf, who have perhaps made private sector sacrifices to live and work for the public they serve, are honestly working to better our world. We really want to believe in this vision, the vision of a government that is striving to take care of our needs while strengthening the Republic, just like we really want to believe in dreams and visions, like the one Richard Scrushy had that eventally became HealthSouth. Alice Martin: "At this time, Your Honor, The United States of America rests." The grand finale, for the United States, did not come with the rockets red glare. For the conclusion of the government’s case to even be close to a triumphant finale, the last words would have been something like, “Mr. Murphy, you may be excused.” But instead of fireworks, it was more like theories bursting in air. The last words for the prosecution came from the uneven testimony of William Bavis, which may have been fitting nonetheless, because anyone looking for problems in the government’s case could find them in the testimony of Bavis. Imprecise. Wavering. No direct connection. But the delays may have been hard to predict. In the original design, there may not have been as much distance between the Bavis fizzle and the compelling testimony of Martin and Murphy. It has been sixty-one days, over two months, since Murphy stepped down. And it has been twenty-five trial days since Murphy, more than half of the trial, to this point. The government would have liked nothing better than to end with Alice Martin standing in front of the jury, waving a piece of paper that is titled something like: “HealthSouth’s Roadmap for fraud,” signed Richard M. Scrushy. But if nothing else has happened in the courtroom, if we know nothing else about this case, it is that the document that has these markings doesn’t exist. On the eve of the defense, we are left with the William Bavis and Harvey Kelly descriptions from afar, and the William Owens’ manner of speaking, and the distant memory of some guy named Murphy. |
|||||
|
Copyright © 2010 Report from Birmingham - All Rights Reserved |
|||||