Thousands Sign Rubashkin Petition

By Debbie Maimon – Yated

Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin‘s attorneys have filed a brief with the full Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals (as distinct from the 3-judge panel that rejected the appeal in September). They are also planning an appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

In an article in the Washington Jewish Week, Sholom Mordechai’s attorneys finally take off the gloves, informing the public in plain English that the Rubashkin case cries out for investigation due to gross injustices perpetrated against Sholom Mordechai by an U.S. Attorney’s Office colluding with a federal judge.

The article by Ms. Alyza Lewin, traces the injustices in the case, throwing into sharp relief a case that from the outset bore the fingerprints of a government vendetta.

“American Justice System Failed Sholom Rubashkin”

“My father and I represented Sholom Rubashkin in his appeal to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. And I can tell you that the American justice system has failed Sholom Rubashkin,” wrote Ms. Lewin.

“From the very beginning, the Iowa federal prosecutors have pursued Rubashkin with unprecedented aggressiveness,” she stated.

“They sought to have him imprisoned before trial on the ground that he is Jewish and Israel has a “Law of Return” that would prevent his extradition if he fled to Israel. (The fact that he was not a citizen of Israel, had made no effort to flee, and had no property or family connection there made no difference.)”

The article goes on to enumerate the rampant inequities and gross injustices in the way Sholom Mordechai was prosecuted, noting that the Iowa prosecutors “sought to imprison a non-violent first-time offender, with 10 children, to life in prison for misrepresenting the value of his business’ collateral. This, despite the fact that he never exceeded his business’ line of credit and made every bank payment on time until a government raid forced his business into bankruptcy.”

Lewin highlighted the prosecutorial and judicial misconduct in the case, noting that prosecutors had numerous ex parte meetings with the judge who presided over Rubashkin’s trial, in which they planned the immigration raid that brought about the destruction of Agriprocessors. Experts in judicial and legal ethics insist the trial was fatally flawed by these improper meetings.

Yet, as we know, the 8th Circuit denied the motion for a new trial on the ground that the matter of improper collusion between prosecutor and judge could not be raised after the trial had ended.

“We hope the Supreme Court will recognize the injustice of such a procedural barrier and will agree to review the conviction,” Lewin wrote.

She went on to note the bizarre situation in which “the trial judge sat ‘by designation’ (on the day before and the morning of Rubashkin’s 8th circuit oral argument in St. Louis) with two of the 8th circuit judges who heard Rubashkin’s appeal.”

Lewin then asked the loaded question that echoes in so many minds: If Rubashkin had been granted a trial before a judge who had not been meeting secretly with prosecutors leading up to the raid; or had he been granted an appeal with judges who had not sat together on the very same day (and the day before) with the judge whose conduct they were being asked to review, would the outcome of his trial and appeal have been dramatically different?

She noted that in fact, when Sholom Rubashkin was tried for child-labor violations before an impartial Iowa state court judge, he was acquitted on all counts.

Call For The Jewish Community To Support The Rubashkin Petition

The article concludes with a stirring call for the Jewish community to show their concern and to support the petition to the White House for an investigation into the case.

“As the Jewish community gets ready for Yom Kippur, when Jews ask G-d to judge fairly and with mercy, let’s remember Sholom Rubashkin, who received neither justice nor mercy, and consider adding your signature to the petition,” the article urged.

The petition the article refers to has been registered on a special web site created by the White House a few weeks ago, to survey which issues are of paramount concern to the American public. Among hundreds of pending petitions circulating nationwide, a call to investigate the Rubashkin case ranks second, with over 35,000 signatures gathered since the site opened.
The Rubashkin petition asks President Obama to direct the attorney general to investigate prosecutorial misconduct in the case and to correct the gross injustice that has been perpetrated against him. A significant show of public concern will enhance the case’s chances of being accepted by the Supreme Court.

To sign the petition, go to http://wh.gov/gWM

Mrs. Leah Rubashkin was nominated for the 2011 Jewish Community Heroes contest for her charity and dedication and is leading in the “Volunteer Heroes” category. Vote here