Bernie Talks, Scrushy Walks

“Why would a rich man want to steal more”? This was a statement attributed to a juror after this jury cleared Scrushy of all charges. What a naïve and stupid question! We are to be tried by a “jury of our peers”. These home grown jurors were “peers” of a lying billionaire?? This case ranks right up there with O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson and Robert Blake. How could a prosecution be so stupid as to try this case in Scrushy’s home town where he had donated millions to all the important causes of the whole community? Who in his home town is going to find him guilty where by finding him innocent they may get some droppings from his largesse? What were these prosecutors thinking or as it appears, they certainly weren’t thinking. They too must have been home grown yokels while the defense spent over $25 million on the best lawyers money could buy. These defense lawyers must still be laughing all the way to the bank and I’m sure Scrushys church has welcomed him and his money back in the fold. Five HealthSouth Corp. executives pleaded guilty and accepted minor sentences in return that their testimony was to put the mastermind behind bars for a long time. It didn’t work.

Wow, what a great country we live in.

The prosecutors practically allowed the jury to be stacked. They didn’t even check for Scrushys fingerprints on documents Scrushy denied seeing. “The mounds of evidence against Mr. Scrushy apparently overwhelmed the jury and slowed the trial so that jurors began to lose track of how the pieces fit together”. According to a post interview and before deliberations had begun, 9 of the 12 jurors had already made up their minds to acquit. The defense was smart enough to keep Scrushy off the witness stand while poor Bernie who may never have totally understood the business he was fronting, testified and is facing the rest of his life in prison. I certainly hope some of the other charges Scrushy faces are handled more professionally by a different team of prosecutors.

Now back to the lead in “Why would a rich man want to steal more”? They should have added “especially if he was a good church going citizen like Mr. Scrushy”. Ho, ho, ho, and this juror probably still believes in Santa Claus. No wonder the underprivileged question our equal justice system. A poor person stealing all that money would have been convicted by the end of the week.