By Staff
Bob Ingram, Alabama Scene
MONTGOMERY–Federal prosecutors in former Gov. Don Siegelman's criminal case are pulling out all the stops in their effort to remove Federal Judge U. W. Clemon from the case.
Clemon was asked to voluntarily step down a week ago but he refused, saying that the objections filed by the prosecutors were "wholly unfounded."
The latest motion by the prosecutors is the first step toward taking the case to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals where that tribunal would have to decide if Clemon indeed is too biased to hear the case.
Federal prosecutors have given a laundry list of reasons why they feel Clemon should step down–his daughter did legal work for the Siegelman Administration…he was himself the target of a federal investigation some years ago…he has personally expressed biased against some of the the federal prosecutors handling the current case.
Judge Clemon's conduct of the hearing has also been troubling to the prosecution–he has upheld objections which none were made and on stormy occasion he ordered one of the federal prosecutors to be jailed.
His admission of guilt was bad news for Lanny Young of Montgomery, a former lobbyist and close ally of former Gov. Don Siegelman. Jordan said Young paid him the money.
Young has denied all the charges leveled against him. He is scheduled to go on trial in mid-November on bribery, money laundering and conspiracy charges in the landfill project.
U. S. District Court Judge Inge Johnson who is hearing the case has set a January date for Jordan's sentencing. He could get up to 20 years in prison and be fined $250,000 but federal prosecutors have recommended that Jordan receive a sentence on the low end of the guidelines because he has cooperated with them.
It is titled "So Help Me God!" and is expected to be released in March, 2005.
A spokesman for the publisher, Broadman and Holman Publishers, said that in his book Moore addresses some of the controversial issues of church-state relations and poses the question: "Can the state acknowledge God?"
Moore is still waiting on the U. S. Supreme Court to rule on his request to be re-instated as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.
It didn't happen. Republican Mike Rogers of Anniston defeated Democrat Joe Turnham in a heated race which was watched nationally.
The Democrats are taking another shot at Rogers this fall, their standard bearer being Bill Fuller of Lafayette, a former legislator who later served as Commissioner of the Department of Human Resources.
However, it appears that the national Democrat Party is not nearly as involved in this race as it was two years ago. Early polls show Republican Rogers well ahead int he race. An odd twist to this race. A few weeks ago Fuller sent to members of the media a copy of a letter he had received advising him that he had been admitted as a student at the Beeson School of Divinity at Samford University. Classes began this week.
Fuller had announced when he resigned from the DHR post that he planned to enter the ministry. Not clear is whether Fuller is now a ministerial student as well as a congressional candidate.