GRIFFIN PROSECUTOR MIGHT WANT TO RETHINK A RETRIAL

Last week's verdict in the federal racketeering and bribery trial of former House Speaker Bob Griffin and three associates was a curious one. Let it be said, however, that a discriminating jury deliberated for six days, sifted through the evidence in a complex trial and delivered itself of a judgment that can be said to have brought credit to our judicial system.

Mr. Griffin, Missouri's longest-serving House speaker ever at 15 years, was acquitted of three counts against him as the jury deadlocked on six other criminal charges. Two of his associates were convicted of bribing him and multiple other counts of operating a racketeering criminal enterprise. A third defendant, former lobbyist Stephen Hurst, was acquitted outright of all charges.

With this mixed and ambiguous result, U.S. attorney Stephen Hill rushed out on the courthouse steps to declare that he would re-file criminal charges against Griffin "as soon as the judge sets the case for retrial." This is within his discretion as a prosecutor, but upon reflection, he just might want to think again.

For one thing, Hill most likely blurted out this intention before learning that jurors had, according to one of their number, voted 10-2 for acquittal on each of the six the deadlocked charges. Consider: Mr. Griffin had all the investigative resources of the federal government turned loose on him for three years or so. A federal grand jury indicted him on nine criminal charges, and he stood trial. In the crucible of a criminal trial he has been largely ruined, nearly broken financially, his reputation sullied, forced to incur legal expenses in excess of $100,000, dragged through the mud -- and then acquitted. If a prosecutor succeeds, as this one did, in getting convictions against two of his four targets, what, really, is the point of proceeding yet again against Griffin?

Griffin, 61, now turns to the difficult challenge of restoring his reputation and finances while facing the grim reality of another trial. Win, lose or draw in that one, however, his days of free-wheeling dealmaking and nearly unchecked power in the state capitol are over. Although not found guilty, what is now known to be Griffin's modus operandi amounts to one large cautionary tale for each of the 197 members of the General Assembly, indeed for all in public life. What Bob Griffin admitted to isn't at all pretty, and "not guilty" doesn't exactly equate to "innocent." Bad examples can serve us all, too.