Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Decries Judicial Abuse Of Power

  Political activist, Al Gerhart, not only won an acquittal in yesterday's ruling. To hear one judge's opinion, This was not even close to enough of righting a wrong done in Oklahoma courts.
Sadly, only 3 of the 5 judges understood the fundamental issue of our constitutional rights in this case. Defendant Al Gerhart posted his own summation of the case;

"The 3 to 2 decision was bitterly fought but three Appellate Court Justices did the right thing, against what will be huge political blow back against their careers.   We were shocked, we fully expected that it would take a Federal Court to ensure that justice and constitutional rights were upheld."

  In the Specially Concurs opinion written by Judge J. Hudson, he writes;

Judge J. Hudson

"We must never allow the Oklahoma blackmail statute to become a sword used to suppress mere political speech or communications of this type with the elected public officials."  The average Joe or Jill is not going to regain their trust in the 1st Amendment in Oklahoma because they would not be comforted by knowing they might win on appeal;  they need to know that any corrupt politician, judge, or prosecutor will pay a personal price for corrupting the system and participating in the persecution of political speech.   Only then will our 1st Amendment right be restored to Oklahoma."

  Judge Hudson clearly thinks the system was corrupted. He suggests that we look closely at the politicians, judges, and prosecutors who have abused the activist's rights in this case. Yes, a politician pressed the charges. Yes, a judge (public official) presided over the case. And Yes, another politician (the prosecutor) pressed for the conviction.
  And Judge Hudson has stated that it will continue to happen until a personal price is paid by each abusing power involved in this kind of miscarriage of constitutional justice.

Gerhart, at the capitol

Gerhart also writes;

"I was lucky, I had the ACLU step up initially, then three fine lawyers that worked on various stages of the case.  Tulsa attorney Gary Richardson lent his enormous credibility at a crucial time and prevented a judge from completely rolling over us in a few matters, then Tulsa area attorneys Kevin Adams and Steven Lee took some heavy hits in their family life and in their professional life to handle the actual trial.  Then Kevin Adams stepped back up and successfully handled the appeal.  All three are outstanding lawyers and patriots that stepped up in the darkest hours and  convinced the jury that any offense was a piddling offense that did not warrant jail time".

David Van Risseghem

"We must never allow the Oklahoma blackmail statute to become a sword used to suppress mere political speech"