Gary Palmer: Closing argument to an Alabama jury

  I invite you to imagine yourself as a member of a jury seated for a major corruption case. This week's column will be presented as the criminal prosecutor's closing argument:

  "Normally, defendants are individuals whose decisions and subsequent actions are prosecutable offenses under the law. However, the defendant in this case is not a person; it is a system that allowed a form of corruption that that has been used to buy influence with elected officials at every level of government in Alabama.

  "The system I am referring to is the system created to carry out multiple transfers of campaign contributions through a labyrinth of Political Action Committees, or PACs. Over the years, this system has become a sophisticated campaign money laundering operation employed to influence legislation and elections. It is the abuse of this system that is now at the center of the recently announced FBI indictments of four state senators, three high profile lobbyists and two very high profile gambling facility operators.