Minor Gets Three Hours with Dying Wife

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Officials gave Paul Minor three hours to visit his dying wife today.

by Adam Lynch
Feb. 20, 2009

Bill Minor, the father of convicted attorney and Democratic fundraiser Paul Minor, told the Jackson Free Press that his son only has three hours to visit his dying wife in Baton Rouge today.

“He told me last night that he was only given three hours and that he would have to be escorted by someone from the Pensacola prison,” Minor said. “I heard that he was cleared to get three days, but the local U.S. Attorney’s office intervened to reduce it to only three hours.”

The office of acting U.S. Attorney Stan Harris said it is recused from the case and had no power in the matter, referring questions to the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, which could not immediately be reached for comment.

Minor had guaranteed campaign loans for some state judges, and a federal jury convicted him of corruption in 2007—but only after U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate allowed the prosecution to remove proof of any bribe with which Minor had allegedly influenced the judges. (An earlier trial over the same charges, which had required proof, or quid pro quo, had resulted in a hung jury.)

Wingate further aided the prosecution by ruling that the jury did not have to consider whether the “influenced” judges had rendered irregular or illogical decisions, and took no account that the judges had been assigned by their superiors to preside over Minor’s case. The defense in any of the cases also apparently didn’t see enough of an issue in Minor’s influence over the judges to file a motion to remove the disputed judges. (They did, of course, have the afterthought to revisit the settlements once Minor was convicted.)

Minor claims he was prosecuted for political reasons, that the Republican-led U.S. Department of Justice targeted him as a Democratic fundraiser to break the back of the state Democratic Party. The American Association for Justice, a national advocacy group for attorneys, agreed, passing a resolution this month proclaiming that Minor “was targeted for prosecution by the Bush Justice Department” because he was a trial lawyer, and because he was the largest contributor to the Democratic Party in Mississippi and “contributed generously to Democratic candidates across the nation,” and because he “boldly stood up against ‘tort reform’ and the U. S. Chamber of Commerce.”

AAJ also stated that the DOJ investigated and indicted Minor for loaning money to Mississippi judges’ campaigns, an act that the association describes as “standard lawful practice” in Mississippi. It also pointed out that “Republican lawyers also engage in the practice, as well as businesses and members of the United States Chamber of Commerce,” an anti-plaintiff organization that funnels money to the campaigns of Mississippi judicial candidates who exhibit an anti-plaintiff bias.

Minor filed for an appeal after Wingate spent more than a year withholding pertinent information related to the appeal from his lawyers. U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Priscilla Owen, a Bush nominee, then upheld a lower court’s decision to keep Minor in jail pending his appeal, even though most white collar crimes allow the release of the defendant on appeal.

Minor’s father pointed out that his daughter-in-law is in the final stages of breast cancer, and that these three hours could be the last time his son sees his wife alive.

“None of us know how long she’s going to be here, but the fact that she’s been taken into hospice shows she has a terminal date and that she won’t be around very long,” Minor said. “He shouldn’t be locked up in the first place. He should be out on bond. No public funds were stolen, nobody was hurt, and he was right and correct under state law.”

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