Siegelman, others have no financial recourse
By Staff
Bob Ingram, Alabama Scene
MONTGOMERY – It is a hypothetical question which may be moot by the time you read this, but several readers of this column have posed a similar question: Should Don Siegelman and the three other defendants in the corruption case in Montgomery all be acquitted, would they have any legal recourse to recover the hundreds of thousands of dollars they have spent in legal fees defending themselves?
To steal that television commercial line, I am not a lawyer, I have never played one on TV, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Hence I posed this question to some of my friends who are, as the saying goes, learned in the law.
The answer they gave me is "no." Despite the damage done to their reputations, despite the enormous amount of money they have spent in defending themselves, none of the four can sue anybody for financial damages should they be cleared of all the charges brought against them.
It may seem harsh, but that is the way our judicial system works.
The endorsements will certainly give Wallace a boost in his effort to close the sizable gap Strange amassed in the first primary. As important as these endorsements may prove to be, Strange may face a far greater concern in his effort to win the nomination.
The Alabama Republican Party has no rule to prohibit voters who participated in the Democratic Primary to crossover and vote in the GOP run-off. There is street talk in Montgomery that Democrats may be urged to do just that on July 18 and vote for Wallace, figuring he would be easier to beat in November than the well-financed Strange.
Darby told the Mobile Press Register that the 163,000 voters who voted for him knew exactly what they were doing. He said they voted for him because of his plan to "deal with the Mexican invasion and work for equal rights for European-Americans."
"White people understand that our race is in endanger of extinction, and they appreciate that I am talking about it," he said. "Races were not meant to be mixed and after the United States becomes completely brown the Jews will continue to be Jews."
While the Democratic Party has done its best to distance itself from Darby, Republican Party leaders have enjoyed watching the Democrats squirm. Commented GOP Chairwoman Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh (no doubt with a smirk on her face): "I really think it's the fact that the Democratic Party has gone out of the mainstream."
At age 25, Zeigler was elected to the Alabama Public Service Commission and it seemed he might be a major player on the political scene for years. It didn't happen.
In subsequent years he ran for state office six more times, losing all of them but always by a narrow margin.
So narrow, in fact, that he was given the nickname "Mr. 49 percent."
Zeigler chaired two conservative political action groups during the primary just ended, supporting several nominees for the state Supreme Court who were linked to former Chief Justice Roy Moore. One of them was his brother, Alan Zeigler. All of them were defeated.
Not long after the election, Zeigler announced his retirement from politics and told the two PACs to find a new chairman. He said, in so many words, that he had enjoyed all of politics he could stand.
