Congressman John Lewis said this about Governor Siegelman,
“Don Siegelman, Alabama’s first progressive governor, advanced the cause of justice for African Americans and women, appointing more African Americans as judges than had been elected or appointed in Alabama’s history. This drove Republicans crazy.”
Don Siegelman was elected Secretary of State, Attorney General, Lt Governor, and Governor. In those positions he expanded voting rights, opened the door to thousands of black citizens to be elected to public office, protected the environment, and women and children from domestic violence, made the largest public land purchase in the US in the last half century to protect the Mobile Delta, and brought Honda, Toyoda, Mercedes and Hyundai to Alabama creating more than 100,000 good paying jobs.
March 28th, 2001, the Kiplinger Letter touted Governor Siegelman as a dark horse candidate for president, who like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, could disrupt the Republican’s Southern Strategy. Governor Siegelman found himself under federal and state investigations by forces aligned with President Bush’s political advisor, Karl Rove. He was then indicted by a US Attorney, whose husband was Karl Rove’s business partner and who was running Siegelman’s opponent’s campaign.
Over the objection of 113 former state Attorneys General, Governor Siegelman was convicted and sent to prison for something the New York Times said has never been a crime in America.
In 2008, Vice President Al Gore said, “Don Siegelman is not only fighting for his freedom, he is fighting to save our democracy …”
Seven years after his trial, it was revealed by the Project on Governmental Oversight, that the Department of Justice, in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, admitted that the prosecutor leading Siegelman’s investigation was in email communication with Siegelman’s opponent’s campaign manager.
Since his personal encounter with injustice, Governor Siegelman’s purpose has been protecting our democracy, ending the abuse of power by police and prosecutors, and balancing the scales of justice through his non-profit, Advocates4Justice. Siegelman’s non-fiction book, Stealing Our Democracy, was a # 1 new release on Amazon in 2020.
On a personal note, Governor Siegelman volunteers to help people with Parkinson’s and has been working with the Woods Foundation advocating for changes in Death penalty laws.