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Scruggs scoop has some problems

By Mark Obbie

The usually fabulous Jerry Mitchell has a scoop in yesterday's Clarion-Ledger in the Dickie Scruggs case, but it's marred by two problems. First, Mitchell's sourcing is opaque. He declares in his lede that "Justice Department officials now are looking at racketeering as a possible next charge to pursue against the legendary trial lawyer." No attribution, and no additional explanation that might shed light on the many qualifiers in that phrase ("are looking at" a "possible" use of RICO). Mitchell is a reliable scoop artist, so it's obvious that authoritative sources have told him this. It's a shame he made a deal not to tell his readers anything about the origins of the report or to explain what he doesn't know yet. Second, he writes about RICO's original purpose (organized crime) and the immense leverage that it gives prosecutors, with stiffer penalties and asset forfeiture. But he never gets around to explaining the elements of the crime, and how much evidence prosecutors would have to amass to prove a racketeering conspiracy. (Via WSJ Law Blog, which also reports on a new Peter Boyer feature in The New Yorker on Scruggs, with brief highlights from the story.)

Full post as published by Lawbeat on May 12, 2008 (boomark / email).