Tag: La Senator David Vitter

“Lifer at Angola unearths DNA evidence…” and Wendy Vitter surfaces!

Thanks to prosecutors Glen Woods and Wendy Baldwin Vitter, “the Orleans Parish jury that sent Booker Diggins off to prison for the rest of his life on Jan. 25, 1988, didn’t hear much about the rape he supposedly committed during a robbery,” according to the Times Picayune’s story Lifer at Angola unearths DNA evidence that might help him fight 1988 rape, robbery conviction:

The examining doctor wasn’t called to the stand, and no blood evidence turned up at court.

Instead, prosecutors relied solely on testimony of the alleged victim, a 23-year-old woman who picked Diggins out of a photographic line-up and then pointed him out in court as the one who raped her while she was handcuffed to a post in the storeroom of the restaurant she managed.

Diggins was convicted of aggravated rape, which carries mandatory life without parole, plus 30 years for armed robbery and five years for conspiracy to commit armed robbery.

The judge ordered him to serve the three sentences in consecutive order.  But 22 years after Diggins was shipped to the state penitentiary, he and his attorneys have unearthed the fact that prosecutors kept quiet the medical evidence that could have helped him at trial.

Well before January 1988, then-District Attorney Harry Connick’s prosecutors — Glen Woods and Wendy Baldwin Vitter — knew that blood and semen had been collected from the victim, along with a blood type that didn’t match the woman’s.

Vitter, wife of Louisiana Senator (“Diaper”) David Vitter and “home-schooled” in “closed-eye experiences”, knows Chet Traylor faces an uphill fight in getting the Senator to man-up to anything.  However, the question at hand is will she [wo]man-up and do right by Booker Diggins: Continue reading ““Lifer at Angola unearths DNA evidence…” and Wendy Vitter surfaces!”

Slicked and SLABBED and "Spooky at a distance"

Only the Senator whose brain is you-know-where could come up with such a bone-headed plan!

Saying that he has received commitments from the Army Corps of Engineers to move forward with long-delayed Louisiana flood-control projects, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., agreed Wednesday to drop his hold that has blocked a Senate vote on the promotion of Army Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh to major general.

Yesterday’s headline story on PoliticsLA.com linked to TP story Sen. David Vitter drops hold on promotion of Corps of Engineers commander and challenged readers to connect the dots.

Drawing a line in the sand, those dots connect to David Vitter’s grandstand.  Could the Senator have been borrowing trouble and buying time for his big oil contributors – just enough time for BP oil to reach land?

You think, perhaps, it was a coincidence that Vitter claimed victory just as PB oil hit land A month after explosion, oil from Gulf of Mexico spill washes ashore in populated areas?

Slicked and Slabbed complete with a photo gallery and theme song.

“Oh the games people play now
Ev’ry night and ev’ry day now
Never meaning what they say, yeah
Never saying what they mean.”

While all eyes were on the oil in the Gulf, big oil was slickin’ and slabbin’ Tulane’s Environmental Law Center!  ThePopTort tells that story in BP and Law Clinics – One Spooky Interaction: Continue reading “Slicked and SLABBED and "Spooky at a distance"”

Turn about is fair play – assuming you want to play fair

Like a man who had his own “tea party” before they became talked about in polite conversation really needs another flap – but then again, Louisiana Senator David Vitter must really enjoy flapping because here he goes again!  However, in that light, columnist John Maginnis might want to rethink the title of this week’s  tell-all Landrieu’s Hard Choices to Make. Actually he did – tough choices were in the headline when the column ran in the Times Picayune today.

Since Sen. Mary Landrieu’s re-election in November, the two issues she and her staff have heard the most about from constituents are: card check and Jim Letten…Whether or not the senior senator recommends that the president reappoint the Republican as U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District is a matter of intense interest beyond the New Orleans region.

For many, the career prosecutor has achieved folk hero status as a corruption fighter, whose ultimate trophy was the conviction of former Gov. Edwin Edwards for racketeering in 2000. Letten, then the first assistant, forcefully presented the government’s case at trial.

Letten’s critics acknowledge his competence while questioning his zeal to prosecute Democratic officials primarily. At any rate, they feel that with a change of administrations, it’s time for a new U.S. Attorney, and they expect Landrieu to recommend one.

Letten’s most fervent supporters proclaim that without him, that part of the state will return to its corrupt old ways–“the Louisiana way” as Letten famously dubbed it–and they demand that Landrieu do the apolitical thing and ask the president to keep him on the job. Leading that charge is Sen. David Vitter, who has promised Landrieu a fight if she goes with anyone but Letten.

What Vitter and like-minded others fail to understand is that one man’s trophy case is selective prosecution to another – and both terms reflect the “gotchya mentality” Jim Brown mentioned in his recent column cross-posted here on SLABBED. Continue reading “Turn about is fair play – assuming you want to play fair”