Federal Prosecutors In Indiana Have Among The Fewest Public Corruption Convictions In The Nation

This is a statistic that should come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog. It turns out that federal prosecutors for the northern and southern district of Indiana won fewer convictions for public corruption cases than most other districts in the country. The Indiana Legislative Insight's latest edition reports that based on data compiled by the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department in Washington, the northern district obtained only four convictions in 2011 and the southern district fared even worse with only two convictions. Only 9 of the 93 federal districts obtained fewer convictions than the southern district in Indianapolis headed up by the former Democratic Secretary of State and Democratic State Party Chairman, Joe Hogsett, while the northern district headed up by David Capp obtained more convictions than just 28 other federal districts. Looking back over the past decade, the southern district fared better, with 38 other federal districts having fewer convictions, while 56 federal districts had fewer convictions than the northern district over the past decade.

I don't know why all the corrupt pols up in Chicago don't relocate to Indiana. They stand a far greater chance of escaping prosecution for their sins in Indiana, where federal prosecutors often turn a blind eye towards corruption matters that are commonly prosecuted in other states. The northern district of Illinois in Chicago obtained 30 convictions last year compared to Indiana's southern district's 2 convictions. Over the past decade, the Chicago office has obtained 370 convictions compared to Indianapolis' 68 convictions. The federal report highlighted among its 2011 convictions the conviction of former Barnes & Thornburg lobbyist Kevin Ring by the D.C. district for conspiracy, honest services fraud and paying gratuities in connection with an illegal lobbying scheme while he was employed by ex-powerhouse lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Ring received a 20-month prison sentence. The report also highlights one of the two convictions the Indianapolis office obtained last year, the conviction of former Indianapolis City-County Councilor Lincoln Plowman on attempted extortion and bribery charges last September. Plowman was sentenced to 40 months in prison.