"Silverglate, in a book, indicts federal prosecutors"
The Boston Globe
November 23, 2009
By Steve Weinberg
"Boston lawyer Harvey A. Silverglate began outlining what became the book “Three Felonies a Day’’ 19 years ago, when he could no longer contain his anger at what he viewed as federal prosecutors abusing their power. Now that the book is complete, it will be interesting to watch whether a defense lawyer’s indictment of those he says sometimes file criminal charges against seemingly innocent women and men will alter the balance of power.
For those less well versed in American courts, one concept is vital to appreciate Silverglate’s outrage: The US criminal justice system is bipartite. Local prosecutors (usually called the “district attorney’’) enforce the laws passed by the state legislature at the county level.
The other prong of the criminal justice system is federal, presided over by a US attorney. That prosecutor is appointed by the president of the United States with input from the Justice Department, then confirmed by the Senate. The US attorney - at least one in each state - enforces federal laws, which cover different crimes than state laws. Federal laws are often more sweeping and less specific than state laws, giving US attorneys greater leverage against alleged criminals than district attorneys wield. ... (Read on at Boston.com)
► View the newsprint edition in your browser
► Download the newsprint edition as PDF document.
"DiMasi defense targets a controversial law"
The Boston Globe
June 22, 2009
By Jonathan Saltzman
During a hearing Wednesday in US District Court in Boston, lawyers for [former Massachusetts House speaker Salvatore] DiMasi and a codefendant, Richard Vitale, an accountant and former DiMasi campaign treasurer, said the 1988 statute that undergirds the “honest services’’ fraud charges against the four defendants is hopelessly vague and being misused by prosecutors.
[…]
Harvey A. Silverglate, a prominent Boston civil liberties lawyer and frequent critic of federal prosecutions, called the statute a “garbage pail” and said the Supreme Court has signaled that it is troubled by how prosecutors apply it.
In a recent case in which the high court declined to review the conviction of former Chicago city workers who made patronage hires, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in a dissent: “Without some coherent limiting principle to define what “the intangible right of honest services’ is, whence it derives, and how it is violated, this expansive phrase invites abuse by headline-grabbing prosecutors in pursuit of local officials, state legislators, and corporate CEOs who engage in any manner of unappealing or ethically questionable conduct.”
“What Scalia pointed out is that not every conduct which seems either immoral or unethical or even in violation of state law is automatically a violation of the federal fraud statute,” said Silverglate, who criticizes the statute in his soon-to-be-released book “Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent.” ... (Read on at boston.com)
See Harvey's January 16 op-ed on former Massachusetts House Speaker Tom Fnneran, here.
