Siegelman seeks reversal based on ruling in Enron case

Subject: Siegelman Seeks Reversal Based on Ruling in Skilling Case
From: siegelmand@*****.***
Date: Thu, September 2, 2010 1:44 pm
To: *********@******.***


Dear *********,


**Siegelman Seeks Reversal Based on Ruling in Skilling Case**
Wednesday September 1, 2010


Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman is asking a federal appeals court to reverse
convictions against him, based on the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling that
narrowed honest-services fraud law.


Sam Heldman, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney, said revisions in honest-services
law require a reversal in the Siegelman case: In June, the Supreme Court of the
United States told the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to consider Governor
Siegelman’s appeal again, with guidance from the Supreme Court’s new decision in
Skilling v. United States.


Tuesday, Governor Siegelman filed his brief with the Eleventh Circuit, explaining
that under the Skilling decision, all charges against Governor Siegelman should be
dismissed.


One issue, Heldman said, is that the jury was tainted by instructions on a law that
the Supreme Court now has held was unconstitutionally vague: Most of the case
against Governor Siegelman is based on the law that the Supreme Court addressed in
Skilling, the so-called “honest services” law. The Supreme Court held in Skilling
that the reach of that law is much narrower than prosecutors had long believed. It
covers only true bribery and kickback cases. Governor Siegelman’s case is not a
bribery case. It is purely a case about lawful contributions to the lottery
campaign, not a case about bribery. Governor Siegelman did not get a penny from
those campaign contributions for himself. Under Skilling, there simply was no crime.


This leaves only two charges against Governor Siegelman, under laws other than the
“honest services” statute. But Skilling requires dismissal of those charges as well.
In charging Governor Siegelman under those other laws, the prosecutors in this case
have tried to expand those laws beyond the words that Congress wrote. The Supreme
Court in Skilling emphasized that in our system, criminal laws must be carefully
written to give notice in advance of what is prohibited, and that prosecutors cannot
stretch the laws to cover the prosecutors’ chosen targets. Here again, Governor
Siegelman simply did not break any laws.

Siegelman Dismissal Brief