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Federal judge overturns ex-senator Stevens conviction, orders prosecutors investigated

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A judge from the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday granted a government motion to set aside the conviction of former senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) on corruption charges. The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed the motion last week asking the court to set aside Stevens' October 2008 conviction and dismiss the indictment against him after admitting that it had failed to disclose relevant information to the defense in preparation for the trial. Calling the prosecution's behavior the worst "mishandling or misconduct" that he'd seen in his career, District Judge Emmet Sullivan appointed Washington lawyer Henry Schuelke III to investigate possible criminal contempt charges against the prosecutors, who had been found in contempt of court in February. Stevens was convicted in October on seven counts of making false statements relating to an alleged corruption scheme and for falsifying his Financial Disclosure Forms. Following his conviction, Stevens lost his re-election bid in November to Senator Mark Begich (D-AK). Stevens was charged with accepting approximately $250,000 in gifts over an eight-year period from the founder of oil services and engineering company VECO Corp.. In 2007, former prosecutor Richard Convertino was found not guilty on obstruction charges brought by the DOJ after a federal judge overturned the guilty verdict in two terrorism cases due to prosecutorial misconduct.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 07, 2009 (boomark / email).