Was I surprised at the guilty verdict in the
Kilpatrick/Ferguson/Kilpatrick trial? Yes I was since I believed that proving a
RICO charge beyond the shadow of doubt was near impossible.
RICO stands for RACKETEER INFLUENCED & CORRUPT
ORGANIZATIONS ACT. The act was enacted to combat Mafia styled organizations
whose main business was “racketeering”.
The federal prosecutor had to prove to the jury that Kwame
Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, and his buddy Bobbie Ferguson formed a
racketeering team involved in illegal businesses; I guess the prosecutors
convinced the jury enough to garner a guilty verdict.
The jury must also have been of exceptional quality with
enough smarts and determination to do what is right while following the law to
the letter. I really expected a “holdout” juror that would crash the whole
thing leading to a mistrial. There have been many examples of black jurors
derailing a trial basically for racial and cultural reasons and not on legal grounds.
There were a number of black jurors on this jury but the legal ethic persevered
over any racial or cultural emotions.
The defense lawyers as well as the defendants were genuinely
surprised together with me.
I was also surprised that the prosecution asked for and the
judge granted immediate incarceration as a prevention of flight; I really did
not think these guys were a flight risk but the prosecutors may have known and
believed that they were.
My wife actually felt a little sorry for Kwame not getting a
chance to say goodbye to his family and especially the kids but to me you
cannot feel sorry for a guy that defied the law, stole from his own
constituents and laughed at the possibility of getting caught and convicted; he
obviously did not have his family’s welfare and well-being in mind while
breaking the law knowing full well what awaited him when caught.
Many columnists were saying what a waste of talent and
potential from a man that had both but decided to go the wrong way; they were
asking what type of culture fosters that type of behavior.
He was a big man with a big appetite for all the finer
things in life but what made him be willing to break the law to get those
things?
He grew up in a well to-do family, politically connected
with a mother a congresswoman in Washington
for many years. Well educated with a fast track to the top of the political
ladder in Michigan; there was talk of him running for governor of Michigan and
some speculated for the presidency now that the color barrier was broken…so why
throw away all that potential and promise?
Many will speculate about this for years to come but I still
believe that there was a belief in “entitlement” on his part and the part of
his family since his father was on trial with him.
Did he really believe he would never be caught?
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