WASHINGTON — Senator Ted Stevens is dead and so is one of the prosecutors in the prosecution of the Stevens case, who committed suicide.
On Monday, the latest twist in a perplexing case surfaced when NPR’s Carrie Johnson reported that the prosecutors in the bungled 2008 prosecution of the Alaskan senator will not face criminal contempt charges. NPR cited “two sources familiar with the case.”
The case had been a major embarrassment to the Justice Department. After winning a conviction against Stevens just before his re-election bid, Attorney General Eric Holder agreed to have the conviction vacated based on allegations that the government failed to share evidence it should have turned over to the defense. Stevens lost his re-election bid.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who spent many a day scolding the prosecution during trial, had ordered a criminal contempt investigation into their conduct.
NPR reported that Washington attorney Henry F. Schuelke has been interviewing the lawyers and collecting evidence in the case, but is expected to recommend in a report that no government lawyers be referred for criminal prosecution.
NPR said Schuelke and the Justice Department declined to comment when reached Monday by NPR.
Stevens died in an August in an airplane. One of the prosecutors, Nicholas Marsh, 37, committed suicide in September.
Separately, NPR reported that the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility has conducted it’s own probe into the botched case, but won’t make misconduct findings against William Welch, who led the Justice Department’s Public Integrity unit at the time, or his deputy, Brenda Morris, who was on the prosecution team.
NPR reported that Welch and Morris are appealing a civil contempt finding by the judge.
