The U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati delivered a blow Friday to ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in his bid for freedom, denying his request for a new trial and upholding his conviction that resulted in a stinging 28-year sentence.
Robert Snell of the Detroit News reports that the three-judge panel said Kilpatrick failed to prove his trial lawyers had a conflict of interest and failed to show that his lawyers were ineffective. Kilpatrick and Detroit contractor Bobby Ferguson, a co-defendant in the case, also failed to show they were prejudiced by testimony from federal agents during the trial. Ferguson is serving 21 years.
As a little consolation, the court vacated the $4.5 million restitution Kilpatrick was ordered to pay the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, concluding the figure was incorrect. The court remanded the matter back to the trial Judge Nancy Edmunds to come up with a correct figure.
Whatever the figure, Kilpatrick isn't likely to repay much of it back while he serves his lengthy sentence.
In an opinion issued Friday the court summed up the issues:
The issues are whether:
(1) Kilpatrick was denied his constitutional right to conflict-free counsel because his two lead attorneys had recently become “of counsel” to a firm that was suing Kilpatrick for alleged conduct related to his criminal charges;
(2) the extensive testimony by two case agents violated the Rules of Evidence;
(3) the district court erred when it allowed witnesses to report what other people had told them about Kilpatrick and Ferguson as evidence that the witnesses feared the defendants;
and(4) the district court erred by ordering Kilpatrick to pay restitution to the Detroit Water & Sewerage Department and to the IRS.
For the reasons that follow, we AFFIRM the convictions, but VACATE and REMAND the restitution order.
Kilpatrick's attorney Harold Gurerwitz expressed disappointment and said the fight wasn't over.
"This is far from the end of the line," Gurewitz told the News.
