July 2 Radio: Former Alabama Gov. Siegelman & DoJ Reform Advocate Charles Walker To Describe Abuses

WASHINGTON, DC (July 2, 2009) – Two of the = nation’s leading critics of alleged “selective prosecutions” by the Bush = Department of Justice to prevent the election of Democrats will appear on today’s = edition of My Technology Lawyer Radio to discuss recent legal developments -- = and last Friday’s unprecedented conference on the topic here at the = National Press Club. 

One guest on today’s noon (Eastern Time) show = will be former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democratic defendant in what has become = the country’s most controversial criminal case of the decade.  = Siegelman this week filed a 74-page motion seeking a new trial on the grounds of massive government = misconduct.  He cited evidence discovered after his 2006 federal conviction on = corruption charges.

The other guest will be Charles “Champ” = Walker, the son of former Georgia State Sen. Majority Leader Charles Walker, who since 2005 = has been serving a 10-year term on similarly disputed corruption = charges.  The elder Walker, a Democrat and the nation’s first African-American = ever elected to be a state senate majority leader, in May won recusal of his 2005 = federal trial judge for appearance of bias. 

Today’s radio show at noon (Eastern) can be = heard via a Listen Live! link.  The = show is co-hosted by attorneys Scott Draughon and Andrew Kreig.  The latter = is an investigative reporter who spoke at last Friday’s conference at = the Press Club featuring public officials, legal experts and purported victims.  = Elected Democrats were seven times more likely than Republicans to be = investigated on corruption charges by the Bush Justice Department, according to a = leading research study by University of Missouri professor Donald Shields.  = He examined hundreds of Bush Administration official corruption = investigations across the U.S. in a study cited last year by House Judiciary Committee majority staff. 

C-SPAN, the public affairs network funded by the = cable industry, cablecast the forum and posted it here.  Puerto Rico Senate Minority Whip Eduardo Bhatia (D) Friday alleged that = Puerto Rico’s then-Gov. An=EDbal Acevedo (D) was targeted abusively in = 2008 before acquittal.  Bhatia commented today, “As viewers around the = country so often say, ‘Thank goodness for C-SPAN.’   We hope = that the mainstream media will report these stories.  It’s an atrocity that these = things can happen in the United States.”     =

Justice Department officials were invited to appear = at the June 26 forum, but declined.  They are invited to future editions = of My Technology Lawyer Radio, which this week begins an expanded = Thursday noon focus to examine how Washington policy affects business, law and = public policy matters across the U.S.

Draughon, a pioneer in innovative formats for = business and law-oriented radio, and Kreig will begin today’s show with a = wrap-up of Washington news.  Topics include Draughon’s coverage of a = technology conference last week at the Press Club hosted by The Security Innovation Network.  Another topic will be = Kreig’s recent Huffington Post article, “Alabama Decisions Illustrate Abuse of Judicial = Power.”  That article addressed the = problem that litigants face when suspecting that a civil or criminal judge might be = biased -- a factor in both the Siegelman and Walker cases, among many = others.  Another topic will be the current battle in Washington over major health = care legislation.

Radio listeners can call-in questions at = 866-685-7469 or by email: radio@MyTechnologyLawyer.com= . 

About Don = Siegelman

Don Siegelman was Alabama Governor from 1999 to = 2003 after serving in statewide office almost continuously since his election = in 1978 as the state’s attorney general.  His first federal = indictment in 2004 brought dismissal of charges for lack of evidence.  A 2005 = indictment on more than 30 counts in the different jurisdiction of Montgomery = before new judge has resulted in conviction on five counts.  These primarily = involved then-HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy’s arrangement of $500,000 in = donations to the Alabama Education Foundation, and Siegelman’s reappointment of = Scrushy to a state board on which Scrushy had served under three previous = governors.  Siegelman is free on bond after serving nine months of a seven-year sentence.  Prosecutors recently recommended that Siegelman receive = 20 years in prison upon resentencing.  Supporters allege that his = prosecution has been unprecedented in many ways, and was primarily to prevent his = 2006 re-election.  Siegelman’s website is: http://donsiegelman.org.  =   

About Charles “Champ” = Walker

Champ Walker is chairman of Green Economy = Diversity Initiative (GEDI), which promotes green set-a-side programs.  = Previously, he was COO of the family-controlled, 1,600-employee Walker Group and = president of its subsidiary Georgia Personnel Services, each of which was = convicted with his father in a 2005 federal trial.  A news account of the elder = Walker’s sentence is available he= re from the Augusta Chronicle newspaper, whose publisher was a = longtime business rival of defendant and also a close friend of the trial = judge.  A 2007 analysis of the case by Hofstra University law professor and = Harper’s columnist Scott Horton is available here, = with a follow up last month here.&n= bsp; The younger Walker and Siegelman were among defendants and families whose = stories were captured on the recent documentary, “The Political = Prosecutions of Karl Rove.”  That documentary can be viewed for free on the website of Project Save = Justice., which co-sponsored the June 26 conference. 

About My Technology Lawyer Radio = Show

Richard Scott Draughon is host and producer of = the My Technology Lawyer Radio Show, which is affiliated with = MyTechnologyLawyer.com -- an on-demand legal service.  Draughon, author of the 2007 book = “The Art of the Business Radio Show,” has long experience also in = guiding entrepreneurial success through close attention to the dynamics of the marketplace, law, government policy and effective marketing.  = Details: http://www.mytechnologylawyer= .com