PITTSBURGH -- Most jurors wanted to convict Dr. Cyril Wecht on 16 of the 41 public corruption charges he faced, according to WTAE Channel 4's news exchange partners at the Tribune-Review, but one man says no matter how close jurors were to a conviction, the government should not retry Wecht.

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It was nearly two years ago that U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan ended a two-year investigation into former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy.

And Murphy is speaking out, saying he knows what Wecht has been going through.

Buchanan was looking into Murphy's handling of a 2001 city contract. Although she never brought an indictment, she also never exonerated him.

"I think Dr. Wecht's case is a great example of excessive prosecution by a justice department that was driven by ideology rather than truth and justice," Murphy said.

Murphy is one of many high-profile Pittsburghers who signed a letter addressed to the U.S. Attorney General and Buchanan asking that Wecht not be prosecuted again after a jury could not reach a decision on even one of the 41 counts against him.

"Having been through a similar type of investigation, you know what it does to your family and what it does financially to you," said Murphy. "It seems to me Dr. Wecht, who took this to court, the jury didn't make a decision but seemed to be leaning heavily toward acquittal. It seems so silly to pursue this."

Murphy said he feels Wecht is being targeted because of who he is, much like Murphy believes he was a few years back.

"What I would like to think is that the U.S. Attorney and the justice system would want to get to the truth," said Murphy. "What I learned is that they're not interested in the truth. They're interested in getting a notch on their gun so to speak, and Dr. Wecht and myself were very high profile elected officials in western Pennsylvania that would look good on somebody's resume if they wanted to move forward to be a federal judge or something like that."

"I think people in this community want justice and want the truth, don't want to see somebody prosecuted out of vindictiveness at this point, not out of justice."

Despite the letter urging the U.S. Attorney's Office to end their investigation, they plan to try Wecht again next month

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Most jurors wanted to convict Dr. Cyril Wecht on 16 of the 41 public corruption charges he faced, according to WTAE Channel 4's news exchange partners at the Tribune-Review, but one man says no matter how close jurors were to a conviction, the government should not retry Wecht.

It was nearly two years ago that U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan ended a two-year investigation into former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy.

And Murphy is speaking out, saying he knows what Wecht has been going through.

Buchanan was looking into Murphy's handling of a 2001 city contract. Although she never brought an indictment, she also never exonerated him.

"I think Dr. Wecht's case is a great example of excessive prosecution by a justice department that was driven by ideology rather than truth and justice," Murphy said.

Murphy is one of many high profile Pittsburghers who signed a letter addressed to the U.S. Attorney General and Buchanan asking that Wecht not be prosecuted again after a jury could not reach a decision on even one of the 41 counts against him.

"Having been through a similar type of investigation, you know what it does to your family and what it does financially to you," said Murphy. "It seems to me Dr. Wecht, who took this to court, the jury didn't make a decision but seemed to be leaning heavily toward acquittal. It seems so silly to pursue this."

Murphy said he feels Wecht is being targeted because of who he is, much like Murphy believes he was a few years back.

"What I would like to think is that the U.S. Attorney and the justice system would want to get to the truth," said Murphy. "What I learned is that they're not interested in the truth. They're interested in getting a notch on their gun so to speak, and Dr. Wecht and myself were very high profile elected officials in western Pennsylvania that would look good on somebody's resume if they wanted to move forward to be a federal judge or something like that."

"I think people in this community want justice and want the truth, don't want to see somebody prosecuted out of vindictiveness at this point, not out of justice."

Despite the letter urging the U.S. Attorney's Office to end its investigation, the office plans to try Wecht again next month.

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More County News

Get RSS | E-Mail Alerts

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