Kathleen Kane, the popularly elected Attorney General of Pennsylvania, has now been convicted (she has appealed) and argued, among other things, that she was targeted—selectively prosecuted—basically for not playing by the rules of the “Old Boys’ Club” when she vowed to expose racist, sexist and just plain pornographic emails of state government employees. Specifically, Attorney General Kane was prosecuted, she claims selectively, for perjury and related crimes concerning her alleged leaking of grand jury material relating to her office’s official investigation of government employees. Her pretrial motion to dismiss was denied, and it remains to be seen if she will succeed on appeal.
Former (Democratic) Alabama Governor Don Siegelman sits in jail after being prosecuted in—some have said—a political witch hunt led by Karl Rove notwithstanding “extensive evidence” found by the House Committee on the Judiciary Majority Staff (April 17, 2008, at http://blog.al.com/bn/2008/04/sieg417.pdf) that Siegelman’s prosecution was influenced by “political considerations.” And Governor Rick Perry of Texas was indicted (since dismissed) for “abuse of official capacity” after he defunded a public integrity unit—a charge many have said was political and partisan. The notoriety of these cases and the summary denial of Kane’s motion makes one think about the issue of prosecutorial discretion not only in relation to public officials but to all defendants.
Past Cases
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