Acquittals don't restore a reputation

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision this week to drop all charges against former Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, who had been convicted by a jury and subsequently lost his 2008 re-election bid, reminded me of the comment made in 1987 by former Labor Secretary Ray Donovan: "Which office do I go to (to) get my reputation back?" Donovan, Ronald Reagan's Labor secretary, was indicted on charges that he defrauded New York City while he was part-owner of a construction company before taking a public office. A Democratic prosecutor in New York brought charges against Donovan and others just before the 1984 election. When the case went to trial in 1987, the defense presented no witnesses, confident that the prosecution's weak case needed little rebuttal. The jury returned all not-guilty verdicts in short order. That's when Donovan made his iconic remark.

Holder's review of the conviction, which Steven's attorneys had appealed, discovered numerous instances of prosecutorial misconduct, including failure to inform defense attorneys of an exculpatory interview with Stevens' primary accuser. The trial judge had admonished the prosecutors and threatened to declare a mistrial because prosecutors had withheld evidence. Stevens only narrowly lost his re-election bid and almost assuredly would have won had it not been for the highly publicized conviction.

Lest anyone think the prosecution was politically motivated, Republican Stevens was charged by a Republican U.S. attorney.

A Republican Party official has called on Stevens' successor to resign from the seat he won dishonorably (though not dishonestly) because of the misconduct  of Republican prosecutors. That's not going to happen, but one could hardly blame Stevens for quoting Ray Donovan's remarks from 22 years before.