Posted on 06/16/2006 11:23:25 AM PDT by AzaleaCity5691
Scrushy attorney invokes MLK Jr. Gray tells jury that the late civil rights leader would want a verdict of not guilty Friday, June 16, 2006 By EDDIE CURRAN Staff Reporter MONTGOMERY -- Jurors now deliberating the fate of former Gov. Don Siegelman, ex-HealthSouth Corp. Chairman Richard Scrushy and two others can "make Dr. (Martin Luther) King's dream come true by returning a verdict of not guilty" against Scrushy, famed civil rights lawyer Fred Gray said here Thursday.
Gray's rousing closing argument opened with a Psalm, then segued into a recitation of some of Gray's best known civil rights cases, including his representation of King in the 1960s and, later, the case against the federal government on behalf of black victims of the Tuskegee syphilis study.
As Gray spoke, another member of the Scrushy legal team quietly put up a poster-board of King's, "I have a dream," speech.
With his voice rising to a crescendo, Gray gave the final words from the defendants in this now seven-weeks-long public corruption trial. He implored federal jurors to "fulfill Dr. King's dream and fulfill that old song!"
"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty we're Free at last!" Gray sang out.
As always in criminal trials, the last word belongs to the government, and in this case, it belonged to Louis Franklin, the lead prosecutor and, like Gray, a black man.
On May 1, Franklin stood and angrily objected when Gray began his opening statement for Scrushy by telling jurors about his most famous clients, King and Rosa Parks.
So as Franklin approached the lectern, many in the packed courtroom anticipated another attack on Gray's implicit comparison of the slain civil rights leader to Scrushy, his white, millionaire client in this case
(Excerpt) Read more at al.com ...
Good grief.
My niece gave me the 1st season of South Park on DVD.
I laughed myself sick on that episode.
Lawyers.
Nothing wrong with quoting a Republican like MLK, is there?
This whole thing is based on the allegations of the family of a guy digging roadised bombs. Disgusting.
If I was a black member of that jury, I would be inscenced.
This lawyer must think they're real stupid.
No, he's thinking do what's worked before. This is how Scrushy got off the first time, when he was tried by a jury with a susbtantial amount of blacks, just like now. Also, Scrushy attends a black church, and he had some TV program up in Birmingham where he read from the gospel.
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