INQUIRER: U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan this morning told his staff that he intends to step down as the top federal prosecutor for the eastern part of Pennsylvania and practice law. Meehan, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) and former Delaware County District Attorney, will hold a news conference this afternoon to formally announce his plans. Meehan, 52, a Republican from Delaware County, was nominated by President Bush for the powerful federal position in August 2001. During his tenure, prosecutors in his office won convictions in a number of corruption cases, including those involving former City Treasurer Corey Kemp, who is serving a 10-year prison term, and former City Councilman Rick Mariano, who was sentenced to seven years behind bars. Meehan was thrust into the public spotlight in 1996 when, as the new Delaware County prosecutor, he handled the John E. du Pont murder case. MORE
WIKIPEDIA: John Eleuthère du Pont (born November 22, 1939)
was a member of the prominent Du Pont family who in 1996 was convicted of murdering Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz and sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. Experts at the trial testified that du Pont suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. On 26 January 1996 he shot dead Olympic gold medalist wrestler David Schultz at the wrestling facility of du Pont’s Team Foxcatcher, without apparent provocation and with Schultz’s wife among several witnesses. After the shooting, the multimillionaire locked himself in his mansion for two days, while he negotiated with police on the telephone. Police turned off his power, and were able to capture him when he went outside to fix his heater. Expert psychiatric testimony described du Pont as a paranoid schizophrenic who believed Schultz was part of an international conspiracy to kill him. On February 26, 1997, a jury found him guilty of murder but mentally ill. Du Pont largely funded a new basketball arena at Villanova University which opened in 1986. Originally, the venue was called du Pont Pavilion, but his name was removed from the facility after his conviction. Today, it is called simply The Pavilion. MORE
SORTA RELATED: As a Los Angeles county prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi batted a thousand in murder cases: 21 trials, 21 convictions, including the Charles Manson case in 1971. As an author, Mr. Bugliosi has written three No. 1 best sellers and won three Edgar Allan Poe awards, the top honor for crime writers. More than 30 years ago he co-wrote the best seller “Helter Skelter,” about the Manson case. So Mr. Bugliosi could be forgiven for perhaps thinking that a new book would generate considerable interest, among reviewers and on the broadcast talk-show circuit. But if he thought that, he would have been mistaken: his latest, a polemic with the provocative title “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder,” has risen to best-seller status with nary a peep from the usual outlets that help sell books: cable television and book reviews in major daily newspapers. MORE