Harpers: Give former state Sen. Charles Walker justice
Controversial state lawmaker’s supporters say he was victim of political prosecution
To longtime observers of Georgia politics, the name Charles Walker should ring a bell.
An Augusta newspaper publisher and Democrat, Walker in 1996 became the first African-American in the United States to be elected state Senate Majority Leader. He also helped fight the legendary battle to remove the Confederate emblem from the Georgia flag. (Also interesting: In 2002, former CL editor Ken Edelstein noted the possible role played by Walker — whom Edelstein referred to as “a brutal power monger with many ethical lapses” — in Gov. Sonny Perdue’s metamorphosis from a donkey to an elephant.)
Walker, however, wasn’t an angel. In 2005, he was convicted on 127 counts which included conspiracy and mail fraud. Today he sits in South Carolina’s Estill Federal Correctional Institute, serving a 10-year prison sentence.
Supporters of the former state lawmaker — who was so popular in his district that he regained his Senate seat in 2004 after he was indicted — say he was the victim of a political vendetta and a casualty of the U.S. Justice Department under former President George W. Bush. They want him to receive a new trial.