Tap the gear icon above to manage new release emails.
Follow Don Siegelman to get new release emails from Audible and Amazon.
Don Siegelman is the only politician in Alabama history to hold all the state’s top four offices: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State. Alabama’s first Catholic governor, and the first “New South” progressive governor in the state’s post-Civil Rights Era, a staunch Democrat, Siegelman was a potential 2004 presidential candidate. His success in politics put him in the crosshairs of powerful Republicans, both within the state and nationally.
After being declared the winner of his 2002 election, he narrowly lost when 6,000 of his votes disappeared overnight after the polls had closed in a small Republican controlled county. Siegelman’s request for a recount was thwarted when the state Attorney General, Karl Rove’s client, seized the ballots, allowing for Siegelman’s opponent to be certified as the winner. However, in 2003, Siegelman remained widely popular and was given good odds of regaining the governor’s office in 2006. But as his campaign was getting underway, he was indicted- wrongfully, according to over 100 states attorneys general from across the nation. Siegelman was convicted and given a harsh prison sentence by a prosecutor and judge with links to GOP operative Karl Rove.
The political motivation of the Siegelman case was the subject of a powerful CBS 60 minutes report by Scott Pelley (February 24, 2008) and a documentary film, Atticus vs. the Architect. Siegelman now has devoted himself to protecting our democracy by limiting the abuse of power through criminal justice reform.
Read more
Read less
