My family moved to Cordova, Alabama, a small rural town in Walker County, when I was an infant. I grew up there until I was ten years old, and we moved to Winfield, Alabama, another small rural town in Marion County. One of my favorite memories as a kid in Cordova was the day Big Jim Folsom came to town.
Mama always got her hair done on Saturdays, and then we would have lunch at Bo Richardson’s Barbecue restaurant, which had the best BBQ that I have ever eaten. Yes, it even topped Dreamland! This particular Saturday, Mama and I left the beauty salon and were walking down the sidewalk to Bo’s BBQ when we heard a loud banjo picking and bluegrass singing. What was going on? We walked upon a crowd of folks standing on the side of the street, so we stopped to listen. Then out of nowhere appeared the biggest man whom I had ever seen in my life. Big Jim stood 6 feet and 8 inches tall, and he was a handsome man! He took one step up on the back of that old, beat-up pickup truck, and when he started talking, I was mesmerized. He was loud and boastful when he said, “I’m Big Jim Folsom and I want to be your governor. I’ll tell ya what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna take your money! Yes, sir, I’m gonna reach far down in your pockets and I’m gonna take your money. I tell ya what I’m gonna do with it. I’m gonna build you some roads, and bridges, and schools, and then I’m gonna bring you some jobs in Alabama that will put that money right back in your pockets.” I think at the age of nine, I would have voted for Big Jim right there on the spot! He was a colorful character with many flaws, but he was forthcoming in his opinions about segregation, labor unions, and helping the poor.
The first time that I heard Don Siegelman speak, the memory of Big Jim flashed in my mind. The former governor was not as flashing, flamboyant, or raw as Big Jim, but he had that way of pulling you in on every word he said. He is a Catholic, and that is something that you rarely see in Alabama is a Catholic candidate. As a Catholic, I was impressed that he talked openly about his faith.
It was 1977, and Siegelman was running for Secretary of State. I listened to his campaign on TV and knew that the Democratic Party had “our guy” in Don Siegelman. He had “it”! The articulate speaking ability, the intelligence, the likeability, the good looks, and class. Siegleman won and served two terms as Alabama’s Secretary of State.
In 1990, Siegelman ran for Governor but lost to Paul Hubbert. This did not end his political career by no means. In 1988, he was elected Attorney General of Alabama. As our state Attorney General, Siegelman addressed the Alabama Chemical Association and met with Monsanto lobbyists. The waterways of the town had been polluted by PCBs from the plant. Monsanto dredged PCBs from just a few hundred yards of Snow Creek and its tributaries. The state gave permission for Monsanto to direct their own cleanup of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) at their plant in Anniston, Alabama.
He was elected as Lieutenant Governor in 1994 and served from 1995 to 1999. In 1998, Siegelman was elected Governor of Alabama with 57% of the vote. This included 90% of the Black vote. This was during the time that most Blacks in the South supported the Democratic Party statewide and nationwide.
Governor Don Siegelman knew the importance of education. He expanded the literacy program for K-12 students and pushed for a bill to raise teachers’ pay. He signed an executive order to eliminate portable classrooms in public schools. Siegleman was supportive of the State lottery that would have gone into a much-needed Alabama educational fund. However, it was not passed, and Alabama still to this day remains in the bottom five worst states in the nation on education.
It was Gov Siegelman who recruited the automotive industry to Alabama. Because of this governor, Alabama now has a significant growth in Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and Mercedes-Benz manufacturing companies in our State that provide good-paying jobs to thousands of Alabama workers.
Gov Siegelman presided over eight executions, including the first female to be executed in Alabama since 1957. He was instrumental in the transition from electrocution to lethal injection in death penalty cases.
In 2002, there was a dispute in the governor’s election between Gov Siegleman and Bob Riley. Siegelman lost by 3000 votes. This was AFTER he was declared the winner. It was said that a voting machine in Baldwin County malfunctioned, and the votes were given to Riley. The Alabama Democratic Party objected and stated that the recount had been performed by local Republicans AFTER the Democratic poll watchers and observers had left the building where the votes were counted. This rendered a recount impossible. Bill Pryor, the Attorney General at the time and a Republican, affirmed the recount in Riley’s favor. Pryor refused all requests for a manual count of the votes and claimed that opening the sealed votes would be a criminal offense. What questions this writer’s mind is that the difference in the vote count from the time Siegleman was declared the winner and the so-called voting machine flaw is that there was no vote difference in any of the other candidates on the same ballots. Would this not be expected IF there was a problem with the voting machine? After this incident, the Alabama Legislature amended the election code to provide for automatic supervised recounts in close races.
In 2006, Siegelman ran again for the Democratic nominee for governor. He was defeated by Lt. Gov Lucy Baxley, wife of former Attorney General Bill Baxley. This came about the time that Siegelman was the focus of the Republican party as a man whom they could not beat. Baxley was able to secure endorsements from the Alabama Democratic Conference, New South Coalition, and Alabama State Employees Association due to the rumors that Siegelman was involved in bribery and racketeering. Baxley lost to Riley in the election. Siegelman has been the last Democratic governor in Alabama since that time.
In May 2004, Siegelmam was indicted by the Federal government for fraud. Prosecutors dropped the charges after U. S. District Judge U.M. Clemon had thrown out most of the prosecution’s evidence. This did not stop the hatchet job that was coming in 2006. Siegelman was indicted on new charges of bribery and mail fraud in connection with Richard Scrushy, the founder and CEO of HealthSouth. Siegelmam was accused of trading government favors for campaign donations as Lieutenant Governor from 1995 to 1999, and as Governor from 1999 to 2003. Scrushy was accused of arranging $500,000 in donations to Siegelman’s 1999 campaign for a state lottery fund for universal education, in exchange for a seat on a state hospital regulatory board, a non-paying position. Scrushy had been appointed and served on the state hospital regulatory board during the past three Republican administrations. He had been acquitted in 2005 of charges of securities fraud for his part in the HealthSouth Corporation fraud scandal, which cost shareholders billions.
On June 29, 2006, a federal jury found both Siegelman and Scrushy guilty on seven of the 33 felony counts in the indictment. Siegelman was convicted on one count of bribery, one count of conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud, four counts of honest services mail fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice. Siegelman said in his defense that Scrushy had been on the regulatory board of the state hospital during several preceding Republican governorships. He said that Scrushy’s contribution toward the campaign for a state lottery fund for universal education was unrelated to his appointment. Siegelman and his attorneys said that the charges against him, in addition to being unfounded, were without precedent. This is what I call a “witch hunt.”
Siegelman was acquitted on 25 counts, including the indictment’s allegations of a widespread RICO conspiracy. Siegelman was sentenced by Judge Mark Everett Fuller, a George W. Bush appointee, to more than seven years in federal prison and a $50,000 fine. Scrushy was released from federal prison in April 2012.
If you ever take the time to read the court transcript like I have, you will likely come to the same conclusion that I did. Don Siegleman was innocent.
Arguably the most successful and promising politician in modern Alabama history, his three-decade career in public service ran afoul of Republican opponents who used the federal judicial system to take him out of contention in Alabama and nationally. Siegelman ultimately was sentenced to 88 months in federal prison and served five years, with long stretches in solitary confinement during which he was a literal political prisoner, cut off from interviews and outside contact. Stealing Our Democracy reveals how Siegelman’s enemies, including politicized prosecutors and a corrupt judge who stripped him of his freedom, his career, and his law license, deprived him of his family and friends. It is an intensely personal account of how our system can fail and be abused for political greed. And if it could happen to him, he writes, it can happen to any of us, particularly in an era when Donald Trump is abusing his power and using the Department of Justice as a political weapon to defend himself and to destroy those who oppose him.
Siegelman draws on his experience as a public servant and an inmate to show why the nation’s prisons must be reformed along with our system of indictment, prosecution, and sentencing. Finally, Stealing Our Democracy offers a blueprint for voters in the future olarf what must be done to preserve democracy.
If you have never read Don Siegelman’s book, “Stealing Our Democracy” I strongly recommend that you do. I have read it three times, and each time I find something that I didn’t before. It is an intensely personal account of how our system failed and was used for political greed. You can also watch “Atticus and the Architect” on Prime. It will blow your mind! This is a documentary about the most notorious political persecution in American history. It tells how a corrupt group of jealous Republicans led by none other than Karl Rove, who secretly rigged a Federal Court to railroad Don Siegelman because they could not beat him at the polls. They were so afraid that he would run for President. And win. And he would have.
I personally have the utmost respect for Don Siegelman. He is a man of integrity and grit. He has persevered over the persecution of his truth and has proved to me and many like me that if this can happen to him, it can happen to me or you. Don Siegelman is the best governor that Alabama has ever had, and none who have come after him can rise to the height of his decency. As we watch today the dishonesty of the Republican Party to support and enable Donald Trump, it becomes clear that our justice system is not without questions. But who is going to answer those questions? We, the people.
Lynda Kirkpatrick