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SAUNDERS: Truth takes a holiday [Ken Starr defending Michael Morales]
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 2/14/6 | Debra J. Saunders

Posted on 02/14/2006 7:50:48 AM PST by SmithL

IT NOW appears that defense attorneys for Michael Morales, who is scheduled to be executed Feb. 21 for the 1981 rape and murder of 17-year-old Terri Winchell, submitted phony affidavits in their attempt to win clemency or otherwise prevent the execution.

One of those attorneys is Ken Starr, who worked so hard investigating allegations that President Clinton committed perjury. Now Starr has fallen so low as to present documents that, according to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office, were "false and forged."

Will there be any consequences?

There should be.

Last week, as The Chronicle reported, Starr and longtime Morales attorney David Senior released a document in which Patricia Felix, a witness against Morales, said that prosecutors had coerced her into giving false testimony against Morales during his trial.

San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Charles Schultz called the document "an outright forgery," and released an affidavit that, he said, really was signed by Felix. In it, Felix said her court testimony was truthful. She also said she never met Kathleen Culhane, the Morales investigator who claimed to have interviewed her in January -- at an address where Felix hasn't lived in since July 2005.

Senior quickly dismissed the prosecutors' charges. He told the Associated Press, "When the D.A. and A.G. show up with badges and guns and say whatever, they can intimidate a lot of people, and that's their game." Morales attorney Ben Weston sent out a statement that dismissed the Felix counter-document as "the latest step in the 25-year pattern of fraud, interference and intimidation by the San Joaquin County District Attorney's office."

Weston also released statements from six jurors from the trial who, Weston said, "asked the governor to sentence Morales to life without parole rather than death."

Over the weekend, however, Morales' attorneys had to backtrack....

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: deathpenalty; kenstarr; lyinglawyer; morales
Now that the anti-death penalty crowd has been exposed as frauds, it's time to tookie Morales.
1 posted on 02/14/2006 7:50:50 AM PST by SmithL
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To: SmithL

Nice to see Starr get smeared....

Never believed he was the man for the job to investigate the Clintoon Clan...

Some in the forum thought Starr was cleaner than the wind driven snow...

I wonder if we'll hear their position on this bullsquat?

Semper Fi


2 posted on 02/14/2006 7:57:19 AM PST by river rat (You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: SmithL

What a conundrum for liberals.

Should they just chastise Star for the forgeries because he investigated Clinton, or should they praise him for trying to keep a man from being executed?

Decisions,decisions.


3 posted on 02/14/2006 7:57:32 AM PST by Bigh4u2 (Denial is the first requirement to be a liberal)
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To: SmithL

I suspect that Starr is in the office of the attorneys but I doubt if he was involved with this. If he is involved, he certainly has fallen far from his principles.


4 posted on 02/14/2006 7:57:47 AM PST by originalbuckeye
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To: SmithL

Starr is in no way stupid enough to submit such obvious fakes. I'd look for a (probably now canned) junior partner in the firm as the doofus. There are lots of attorneys on this case.


5 posted on 02/14/2006 8:02:31 AM PST by JennysCool (Do not needlessly endanger your lives until I give you the signal. - Ike)
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To: river rat

Heads will roll.


6 posted on 02/14/2006 8:10:33 AM PST by reagandemocrat
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To: river rat

Once he concluded that Vince Foster "committed suicide" I lost most of my coinfidence in him.


7 posted on 02/14/2006 8:12:36 AM PST by libstripper
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To: SmithL

If I recall correctly, Starr told Clinton of the DNA evidence BEFORE Clinton took the stand, ensuring that Clinton would not perjure himself. He did this because of his "immense respect" for the Office of the P.


8 posted on 02/14/2006 8:19:12 AM PST by RayStacy
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To: river rat

China Ken Starr was JUST the man to turn an investigation of bribery, extortion, treason, fraud, rape and murder into a scandal over a dumb, fat slut.

He also gave us Sandra Gay O'Commie.

What a guy!


9 posted on 02/14/2006 8:27:41 AM PST by the gillman@blacklagoon.com
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To: river rat

Until I hear ALL the facts I would be unwilling to attack Ken Starr.


10 posted on 02/14/2006 8:56:00 AM PST by OldFriend (The Dems enABLEd DANGER and 3,000 Americans died.)
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To: originalbuckeye; JennysCool; OldFriend
My first response was that Starr was probably just a name on the report. However, as Debra correctly pointed out, it's hard to get around this:

...Except that in releasing the Felix document, Senior and Starr were impugning the integrity of the prosecutors and police, whom they essentially accused of suborning perjury. "They made me lie about many things," claimed Felix in the phony document. When lawyers present a serious charge like that, they have an obligation to vet it.

11 posted on 02/14/2006 9:03:16 AM PST by SmithL (Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.)
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To: SmithL
Whether Ken Starr or David Senior knew anything about the forgeries is not known. Nevertheless, they bear some responsibility. "Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau said Starr and Senior, the lawyers who prepared the clemency papers, may not have known of the alleged fabrications but were responsible for the documents they filed. "The buck stops here,'' Himelblau said. After accusing the prosecutors of dishonesty in the exchange over Felix, he said, the lawyers now "owe an explanation to the district attorney's office, to the governor, to the jurors who (they) lied about, to the witnesses who (they) lied about, and finally to the people.''" San Francisco Chronicle, 2/11/06
12 posted on 02/14/2006 3:07:06 PM PST by ddareh
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To: SmithL
Lying? To liberals, its second nature. If they told the truth, THAT would be news.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

13 posted on 02/14/2006 4:40:48 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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