(From documentary.org)
A documentary about the political prosecution of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman will premiere tomorrow night at the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham.Atticus v. The Architect: The Political Assassination of Don Siegelman will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday (5/10/17). Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the full event runs until 10 p.m. (The film's trailer is embedded at the end of this post.)
The film, directed by Steve Wimberly, was three years in the making and includes interviews with many of the central players in the Siegelman case. From a press release about the premiere:
The film exposes the dark underbelly of political corruption that led to what legal experts call the malicious prosecution and wrongful conviction of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy. Insiders, both Republicans and Democrats alike, have come together to tell the world about this horrible injustice, and reveal the overwhelming evidence of judicial misconduct that has remained hidden from the public for far too long.
We have published several hundred posts here at Legal Schnauzer, far more reports than any other news outlet. We also have provided more details about judicial misconduct in the case, including a five-part series titled "The Cheating of Don Siegelman."
Considerable evidence points to Karl Rove, "the architect" of George W. Bush's political ascension, as the driving force behind the Siegelman prosecution. The documentary reportedly includes an interview with GOP felon Jack Abramoff, who describes the reasons Republicans were determined to take down Siegelman, a rare Democrat who maintained political clout in the conservative South. The motivation, according to the Abramoff interview, largely involved Indian gaming money.
The documentary reportedly shines unflattering light on a number of prominent Alabama political and legal figures, including Bill Canary, Leura Canary, Bob Riley, Rob Riley, and Alice Martin.
As we have reported multiple times, Siegelman and Scrushy were convicted of a "crime" that does not exist under U.S. law. That is one of the reasons many legal analysts consider the Siegelman case the most egregious political prosecution in U.S. history. Several of those experts are interviewed in the documentary:
The prosecutor that indicted Siegelman for bribery was married to the campaign manager of Siegelman’s opponent in an upcoming election. Prosecutors were allowed to get away with a staggering degree of prosecutorial misconduct. Siegelman political foe, Mark Fuller, was selected to preside over the trial, and has since been forced off the bench for ethics violations.
The judicial abuse and malfeasance ran so deep, that for the first time in American history, 113 former States Attorneys General from both parties united together to protest the deliberate injustice that was directed at Don Siegelman.
Tickets for the premiere are available through Ticketmaster or at the Alabama Theatre box office, which opens at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
Atticus v. The Architect Trailer from Peppertree Films LLC on Vimeo.
