D.A. Joe Mulholland on Fox News on the Quitman 10

This is what local TV viewers are hearing and seeing about the Quitman 10. Somebody tell me, is it appropriate for a district attorney to declare people guilty before trial?

Justin Schuver wrote for the Post-Searchlight 29 November 2011, Mulholland interviewed on Fox News

Local viewers of Fox News on Sunday morning might have seen a familiar face on their screen, as South Georgia Judicial Circuit District Attorney Joe Mulholland was interviewed by the national news station about his prosecution of a voter-fraud case in Brooks County, Ga.

Mulholland spoke to Fox News newsman Eric Shawn for approximately four-and-a-half minutes about the case, which involves 12 citizens charged for allegedly tampering in a July 2010 primary election.

According to the Valdosta Daily Times, school board incumbents Gary Rentz and Myra Exum were leading in their races, before the absentee ballots were counted. After those 979 absentee ballots were tabulated, challengers Linda Troutman and Elizabeth Thomas were able to overtake the incumbents' leads and eventually win election in November.

On Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested

Troutman and Thomas, as well as another school board member, Nancy Whitfield-Dennard. All were charged with three counts of unlawful possession of ballots and three counts of violation of procedure for voting by absentee ballots. Ten other people have also since been charged in connection with the alleged fraud, and most of those are family members and friends of the three elected officials, Mulholland said.

“Once an absentee ballot goes out to a voter, it's for that person only,” Mulholland said. “This was a situation where some of the individuals, who are charged in the case, were making sure that the ballots were mailed, and going to the voters' houses to make sure they got there and that those citizens actually voted. That's illegal.”

He also said:

“It's pretty clear there was fraud here,” he said. “Some of the names on those ballots that were returned were unregistered voters who had been gone for years.”

I'm no lawyer, but is it appropriate for the district attorney to declare people guilty before trial?

He even declared that he didn't want them tried locally, because:

“You have to convince 12 jurors of that particular county of their guilt.”

Bainbridge.com has video of the interview.

-jsq