Uppity Wisconsin

Why should Wisconsin citizens get stuck with the $200,000 tab paid to an innocent Wisconsin woman who was the victim of a political prosecution by the United States Dept of Justice?

State Representative Pedro Colon (D-Milwaukee) says the federal government should foot the bill, not Wisconsin taxpayers.

United States Attorney Stephen Biskupic was excoriated by the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit last year in an extraordinary decision that freed the innocent state worker, Georgia Thompson.

From the Associated Press:

MADISON,Wis. (AP) -- A lawmaker wants the state to force the federal government to reimburse an employee who was wrongly convicted in federal court.

Revelations of prosecutorial transgressions nationwide including a stunning lack of prosecutorial discretion, systemic biases, and clear cases of corruption and misconduct have led to calls for examination of the prosecutor’s role in society at all levels of government.

The prosecutor’s office (beyond the corrupt nature of Bush’s U.S. Department of Justice, former Winnebago County District Attorney Joseph Paulus’ corrupt fiefdom, and spectacular cases of prosecutorial wrongdoing such as the Duke University lacrosse misconduct and the Georgia Thompson prosecution) as never before has become a platform for politicians eager to generate politically appealing win/loss records which can be touted as unassailable proof of commitment to law and public service.

Bradford Plumer has a piece out today in The New Republic discussing “How Worried Should We Be About Rogue Prosecutors?”

Plumer’s reasonable conclusion is not reassuring. Writes Plumer:

Every politico in Wisconsin is familiar with the Georgia Thompson prosecution; a travesty of justice that has tainted Wisconsin’s fading reputation for fair play and impartial justice at all levels of government.

But being flushed out now is the scope of a program that the U.S. Dept. of Justice employed onto political opponents in key races across the nation, in which the infamous Georgia Thompson prosecution was but one ugly piece.

Scott Horton, a human rights attorney and writer at Harper's, has broken much new ground investigating DoJ political prosecutions including today's column linking Karl Rove to the prosecution of former Democratic Alabama governor, Don Siegelman.

Weeks ago Horton had also uncovered the outlines of a DoJ scheme to use the DoJ machinery against major Democratic opponents and one tier of Democratic supporters, trial attorneys.

Writes Horton:

US Attorney Steven Biskupic tried to squeeze Georgia Thompson, the state employee who was falsely convicted, offering her leniency in exchange for testimony against higher-ups in the administration of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.

Biskupic has insisted the case was not politically motivated.

Isthmus has details in a copyrighted story today.

Here's my post on DailyKos.

The latest member of the Steven Biskupic Fan Club is Journal Sentinel suburban columnist Mike Nichols, who praises Biskupic in a weekend column.

Biskupic, according to Nichols, is the most non-political federal prosecutor ever to hold office. He’s a straight shooter, a principled prosecutor, who’s so apolitical he probably would have been a monk if he hadn’t chosen public service instead.

 Well and good. That may all be true, although it is certainly in some dispute. But even if Nichols is right in his assessment, it does not explain his conclusion. Discussing the Georgia Thompson case, Nichols writes:

Granted, the prosecution of Thompson, the purchasing official in the Doyle Administration, was a bust. Being a political creature like Thompson, it turns out, is not a crime.

But you have to admire a prosecutor who starts from the premise that it might be.

Really? You have to admire Biskupic for prosecuting an innocent woman, sending her to prison and ruining her life?

Madison, Wisconsin—The opinion by the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit that explained the freeing of the innocent state worker Georgia Thompson is being used by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel to provide political cover for US Atty Biskupic. 

The Journal-Sentinel editorial, “Mistakes aren't crimes” (April 24, 2007), seized a slender reed at the end of the 14-page opinion that was also used by Biskupic in his own audacious public relations move after the written opinion was issued April 20.

Reads Biskupic’s statement on the Court’s opinion: “We are studying the decision to determine its impact on other cases. Meanwhile, given the initial rhetoric surrounding the result, we are heartened that the opinion notes the good faith legal difference inherent in the case.”