Republicans Anonymous

Can you say "prosecutorial misconduct?"

Judge Calls Halt to Penalty Phase of Terror Trial

By NEIL A. LEWIS
ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 13 — An angry federal judge delayed the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui on Monday and said she was considering ending the prosecution's bid to have him executed after the disclosure that a government lawyer had improperly coached some witnesses.

Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said she had just learned from prosecutors that a lawyer for the Transportation Security Administration gave portions of last week's trial proceedings to seven witnesses who have yet to testify. In e-mail messages, the lawyer also seemed to tell some of the witnesses how they should testify to bolster the prosecution's argument that Mr. Moussaoui bore some responsibility for the deaths caused by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"In all my years on the bench, I've never seen a more egregious violation of the rule about witnesses," Judge Brinkema said before sending the jury home for two days. She said that the actions of the government lawyer, identified in court papers as Carla J. Martin, would make it "very difficult for this case to go forward."
(Source: New York Times)

Gee, you'd almost think they were more concerned with getting a death penalty verdict than with the concepts of justice and fair play. Admittedly, the Republican dictionary defines those terms as "whatever the President says; see fuehrerprincip", but still...