General Discussion

Fact--Ted Stevens' lawyers found the loophole--the GOP Justice Department that prosecuted him had withheld evidence. That's a miscarriage of justice. That is why their appeal was successful. That doesn't mean that Stevens was innocent of wrongdoing--he got lucky because the prosecution was unfair to him during the trial.

Siegelman's legal team didn't find the technicality needed to overcome their failure to get an acquittal at his trial. On appeal, again, to be clear, it's all about the technicalities. One does not "retry" the case, one can only find out where the judge, or the prosecutors, or even the defense, screwed up and made the proceedings somehow unfair to the defendant. Siegelman's team didn't find that screw-up -- at least not to the satisfaction of the three judges on the 11th Circuit Court hearing the case.

Once you are past the trial, the defendant has been convicted, and you are onto the appeals process, that's the bottom line. It's not about "brain cells" or party affiliation at that point--it's about proving that there was something unfair about the trial itself. And it's not the DOJ making the decision to keep him locked up, it's the 11th Circuit judges hearing the appeal--three of them.