** In a city that is nearly 98% black, the attorney for Democratic Party Leader Charles Powell Jr. claimed yesterday that the conviction of his client was due to racism and the suppression of the black vote! **
Let’s see…
The defendants were black, the witnesses were black, the city is 97.74% black, and the secret recordings used as evidence during the trial were of black people.
But the defense says this was about racism? …No, it’s about vote fraud!.
Charles Powell, Jr. is the 5th Democratic Leader to be convicted and sentenced for election violations during the 2004 election:
A federal judge sentenced former City Council member Charles Powell Jr. to 21 months in prison for organizing a vote-buying conspiracy during the November 2004 general election.
During Powell’s sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, the judge also ordered Powell, 62, to pay a $2,500 fine and serve two years’ of supervised release. Federal prosecutors had sought a 33-month prison term.
Powell, until last month the chairman of the city’s powerful Democratic Central Committee, remains free pending his surrender to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Powell must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence, or nearly 18 months.
The bulk of the two-hour sentencing hearing centered on defense attorney Bruce Cook’s bid to convince U.S. District Judge G. Patrick Murphy to give Powell probation — even though sentencing guidelines explicitly precluded probation.
Cook subpoenaed four character witnesses — including St. Clair County Circuit Court Judge John Baricevic — to testify as to Powell’s good works and character.
Baricevic, until last year the St. Clair County Board chairman, extolled Powell’s work as a County Board member during the mid-1990s to ensure the MetroLink light rail system came into St. Clair County.
Near the end of his remarks, Cook used a projector to flash a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon Johnson seated together during debate over the Voting Rights Act of 1964.
“Your honor, this is about racism,” Cook said of Powell’s prosecution. “This is about suppressing the vote of black people.”
The racial makeup of the city is 1.23% White, 97.74% African American!
Powell, the Democratic Party Leader in East St. Louis until last month even after his conviction in July of 2005, was sentenced for orchestrating a conspiracy to pay voters either $5 or $10 apiece to vote for a slate of Democratic candidates in the 2004 election.
At least 16 St. Louis area Democrats have been found guilty of election crimes since the 2004 election!
Last month, Powell’s cohort at City Hall, Kelvin Ellis, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for plotting murder of a federal witness and vote fraud.
** This is a CLASSIC! Speaking of Election Violations!**
Records Show Tulsa, OK Democratic Mayoral Candidate Kathy Taylor Voted in 2 States at Once!
Independent Conservative has more on the story.
And, my apologies to Lori Byrd… When I saw this posted at Polipundit I was thinking it was this Democratic Representative who was in trouble but it was actually this Democratic Representative she was talking about.
