Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Whitey Bulger Tries To Get Judge Removed From Case

All Things Considered:
Bulger's lawyer, J.W. Carney, says the case cannot be handled by U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns, who was a federal prosecutor at the same time other prosecutors were engaged in a corrupt relationship with Bulger.
"The trial must be overseen by a judge who is not connected to the most infamous period in federal law enforcement history in Boston," Carney says.
Stearns has twice refused to step aside, insisting that as former chief of the U.S. attorney's criminal division, he was separate from the organized-crime task force that was dealing with Bulger did not know anything about the case.
Carney says he doubts that, but he wants to call Stearns as a witness to bolster claims that Bulger had a deal with prosecutors who granted him immunity in exchange for being an informant.
Stearns calls Carney's demands for recusal "gratuitous and overheated." Carney concedes the judge has not actually shown any bias, but experts say the real issue is whether people think he might.
"As they say, there are times when you've got to be purer than Caesar's wife and this is one of those times," Boston attorney Harvey Silverglate says.
That is an interesting situation.  Then again, what about the Whitey Bulger case isn't interesting?

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