A federal appellate panel today reversed the bribery convictions of former trial attorney Paul Minor of Biloxi, Miss., and former Mississippi court judges John Whitfield and Wes Teel.
The three men, currently in federal prison, were convicted in April 2007 on multiple counts of bribery and honest services fraud stemming from two separate schemes in which Minor arranged, guaranteed, and eventually paid off loans for Whitfield and Teel, allegedly in order to corruptly influence the outcome of cases Minor filed in their courts.
In U.S. v. Whitfield, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit threw out the federal program bribery convictions after finding that the government failed to prove a link between the defendants' actions and an office that received federal funds.
The government had argued that the link was between Whitfield and Teel and the state Administrative Office of the Courts, which receives federal funds. The appellate panel disagreed, saying that the state office was involved in administering non-judicial business, while the former judges had been conducting judicial business when they presided over Minor's trials.
"If Minor had bribed Whitfield or Teel in exchange for their appointment of a friend or family member as a law clerk or secretary, then [the federal bribery law] might have been implicated in this case," said the court.
Minor was represented on appeal by Abbe Lowell of McDermott Will & Emery.
The appellate panel ordered resentencing on all remaining counts. Minor had been sentenced to 11 years in prison and a $2.75 million-fine. Teel was sentenced to nearly six years and was held jointly liable with Minor for $1.5 million in restitution. Whitfield received 14 years in prison and a $125,000-fine.
Nancy Swan's comment does not inspire confidence in her site's authority.
The 5th Circuit reversed convictions for *federal* program bribery, on the simple ground that issuing rulings as a state-court judge is not a "federal" function, even though those judges received money for support staff, etc. from a program that received federal funds. A reasonable, non-political appellate court could hardly do otherwise.
The 5th Circuit's opinion leaves no doubt that Minor, Teel, and Whitfield acted with gross impropriety and richly deserved whatever punishment the law afforded. It's just that sentences for federal-program bribery were not among those punishments.
Posted by: Anderson | December 13, 2009 at 08:42 PM
This decision not only reaffirms that justice can continue to be bought in Mississippi, it reaffirms that you can buy your freedom in U.S. Appeals courts. Minor's appeal was based on the fact that he was a BIG contributor to the Democratic Party and this is -after all - now a Democratic administration. The rest of the story http://www.nancyswan.com
Posted by: Nancy Swan | December 12, 2009 at 09:02 PM