Rita lawyer cites Libby contrasts, similarities
on Jul 11, 2007 at 10:20 am
Thomas N. Cochran, a public defender in Greensboro, N.C., who argued and lost a major criminal case in the Supreme Court this past Term, had a simple message for the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Despite “striking similarities” between the federal cases against Victor A. Rita, Jr., and I. Lewis Libby, “today Mr. Rita is in prison and Mr. Libby is not.” Rita, who was Cochran’s client, reported for his 33-month prison sentence on July 2, coincidentally the day that President Bush nullified the 30-month prison sentence of former vice presidential chief of staff Libby.
“Incredibly,” Cochran told the House committee, “the President’s justifications for commuting Mr. Libby’s sentence mirror Mr. Rita’s arguments before the Supreme Court.” Cochran argued the case of Rita v. U.S. (06-5754) on Feb. 20; the Court ruled in the government’s favor on June 21, dividing 5-4 in concluding that Rita’s prison sentence within federal Sentencing Guidelines was “reasonable.”
Cochran was summoned to testify on Wednesday as the Judiciary Committee opened a probe into the Libby commutation. Cochran’s prepared testimony can be found here.
The statement contrasted the reasons President Bush gave for sparing Libby any prison time with arguments that the Justice Department made to the Supreme Court in Rita’s case. “When Mr. Rita appeared before the Supreme Court this past February, the President’s Solicitor General took the opposite position and argued that ‘uniformity’ trumped Mr. Rita’s justification for a lesser sentence.”
The statement included a quotation from Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben’s argument in the Court that “we cannot have all our own personal guidelines systems.”
Among other witnesses scheduled to appear before the midday hearing was Roger C. Adams from the Justice Department’s Office of Pardon Attorney, and sentencing law specialist, Douglas Berman of Ohio State University.
