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Update on Hearing for Former Alabama Governor Siegelman that Could Free Him on Bail

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[audio https://www.peterbcollins.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Siegelman.mp3]

Dana Siegelman, daughter of the former Alabama Governor, reports on today’s hearing in Montgomery before a new judge.  And filmmaker Steve Wimberly joins us to detail his plans to make a documentary about the Siegelman case.Don Siegelman was railroaded into federal prison in a case riddled with injustice, cronyism, and political intrigue.  In this podcast, Dana reports on the hearing before a new judge, Clay Land from US District Court in Georgia.  Land replaces Mark Fuller, the judge who is tainted by charges of domestic violence and abuse of alcohol and drugs.  Siegelman has a new lawyer, the savvy, well-connected Greg Craig, former Obama White House Counsel.

In a hearing described by a local newspaper reporter as the judge “grilling” the government lawyer in the case, Land showed concern for some of the “structural errors” in the underlying case that led to the conviction of Siegelman and Richard Scrushy, who was accused of bribing the governor.

Roger Shuler, the journalist who has blogged about the Siegelman case for years (and lost his job at University of Alabama as a result) posted a draft statement that he wrote for the judge, which sums up the key legal defects in the case.  You can read it here.

Film director and editor Steve Wimberly joins us to talk about the documentary he is working on about the Siegelman case, and he describes the film project and some of the complex issues raised in the case, with the working title Killing Atticus Finch–a reference to To Kill a Mockingbird.

If you can, please give generously to support the documentary project here.