Legal News

Post-Stevens, Other Defendants Trying to Join the Brady Bunch

By Amir Efrati

Criminal defendants across the land are hoping the botched prosecution of former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens will have ripple effects. They’re trying to draw parallels between the Stevens case and their own, claiming there was government misconduct. (For a recent WSJ article on prosecutor mistakes, click here.) Below are three recent examples:

In the case of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (pictured, left), convicted on corruption charges three years ago, 75 former attorneys general earlier this month penned a letter to AG Eric Holder, asking him to investigate the case. The letter was sparked by allegations of misconduct raised by Siegelman’s lawyer, Vincent Kilborn III, who recently wrote to Holder that three of the prosecutors involved in the Stevens case were also involved in prosecuting Siegelman, whose first appeal to the 11th Circuit was denied. Siegelman is now awaiting a decision on whether the entire 11th Circuit court will review his case.

Kilborn said in his letter that one of the prosecutors recently informed him, among other things, that there had been a private communication between United States marshals and the judge in the case that Kilborn characterized as inappropriate. The prosecutor said the communication had no effect on the case and was being revealed "out of an abundance of caution."

Out in Missoula, Mont., lawyers for W.R. Grace & Company and several executives who on trial for conspiracy and other charges related to asbestos contamination told a judge on Friday that prosecutors violated Brady rules and that their case resembled Stevens’s. The judge, Donald Molloy, appeared to agree. "There seems to be some serious, serious problems here in the way evidence has been selectively produced, and the way witnesses have been dealt with," Molloy said in court. Click here for the Bloomberg story and here for LB background on the fascinating case.

Meanwhile, in Brooklyn federal court, lawyers for former Bear Stearns hedge fund manager Matthew Tannin (pictured, right), who is accused of securities fraud, said at a hearing earlier this month that the government was withholding so-called Brady material that could aid the defense, which prosecutors denied. (See page 25 of this transcript.) Frederic Block, the colorful judge in the case (background on it is here), didn’t seem too concerned. He said the government “is not going to want to run the risk of having a Ted Stevens situation, that they would want to jeopardize their trial. I have lot of confidence in them, notwithstanding Ted Stevens, they will make sure that no Brady material is not turned over.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 22, 2009 (boomark / email).