From: Gene McAloon 

On Fri, 03 Sep 2004 08:56:52 +0200, Phil Payne
 wrote:

>> The government's filing put most of the blame on lead prosecutor Richard
>> Convertino, who said through his lawyer Wednesday that he had done nothing
>> wrong and was disappointed that the government was not standing by the
>> terrorism convictions.
>
>Gene is always telling us that you guys have separation of powers, and the
>government has no power over justice.  So how come the "lead
prosecutor"
>(whose knowledge of the law must be better than mine or even Gene's) thinks
>the government has influence here?

He thinks nothing of the kind. What the prosecutor is say has nothing
whatsoever to do with separation of powers. What he is saying is that the
Justice Dept. should be supporting his prosecutorial efforts and
criticizing the judge's decision that overturned the convictions he had
gotten. He objects to the fact that the department is criticizing him
instead for, in affect, prosecutorial misconduct in getting those
convictions and subsequently having them overturned.

None of this has anything to do with anyone's beliefs concerning what
influence the executive branch has over the judicial branch, which of
course is none. The Justice Dept. could be screaming its head off about the
overturning of the convictions and that would have no affect whatsoever on
the judge who is absolutely untouchable in his capacity as judge. Other
than appeal his decisions to a higher court, the Justice Dept. can do
absolutely nothing about either him or his decisions.

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