Larry Ferrell a strong candidate for US attorney

I am endorsing Larry Ferrell for the office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern district of Missouri. This is a political appointment.

I asked him why he should be selected, and he gave me some of the following details.

First, few have Ferrell's experience. He is a career prosecutor who has spent more than 30 years in prosecution. He has served as the elected Prosecuting Attorney of Cape Girardeau County, and for the last 25 years as the Supervising Assistant United States Attorney overseeing all federal prosecutions in an 18-county area comprising the Southeastern District of the Eastern District of Missouri. He has personally supervised or handled more than 3,500 federal criminal investigations and 2,000 criminal indictments for virtually every type of case from murders to million dollar bank frauds, and everything in between and tried approximately 100 jury trials, obtaining convictions in all of his trials as the Prosecuting Attorney of Cape Girardeau County and as an Assistant United States Attorney.

Secondly, few candidates have demonstrated a greater commitment to the cause of justice or the Rule of Law. In 1991, he was asked by United States Attorney Stephen B. Higgins to accept the challenge of opening a satellite office in Cape Girardeau. He left a very lucrative private practice to take that position. The office has exceeded everyone's expectations. In its first full year, the Cape Girardeau office handled 20 percent of all federal prosecutions in the entire Eastern District of Missouri, with less than 5 percent of the attorneys. The office has continued to flourish. Federal law enforcement agencies have been strengthened, permanent district and magistrate judges have been seated, a new federal courthouse has been established, and a federal law enforcement presence has been created in Southeast Missouri which will remain forever.

Ferrell believes so strongly in the cause of justice and the rule of law that he volunteered for and was ultimately selected by the Department of Justice to serve as an attorney/advisor to the Iraqi prosecution team during the investigation and trial of Saddam Hussein before the Iraqi High Tribunal, for the hundreds of thousands of deaths and other atrocities committed by Hussein and other members of his regime against the Iraq people.

He has been quoted in numerous articles and he has made this statement in many public presentations, "I know of no person in greater need of being brought to justice than Saddam Hussein and I knew that if Iraq was to have any chance at succeeding as a democracy it would be critical that it establish a fair and independent judicial system that respected and applied the Rule of Law." The Iraqi people watched each day, as Saddam Hussein received a fair trial and ultimately the justice he deserved. One year after Ferrell returned from Iraq, he was asked by the Attorney General of the United States to return to Iraq as the Justice Attache where he served as the direct representative of the Attorney General to the country of Iraq.

He was the senior Department of Justice official in the country and charged with the responsibility of overseeing the Department of Justice's efforts to instill the Rule of Law throughout Iraq. He served as the US liaison to the

Iraqi courts and members of the Iraqi cabinet and worked to reform every aspect of their legal system including training police officers, corrections officers, attorneys, and members of the judiciary. In total he spent 19 months in Iraq during wartime to further these principles to which he is dedicated.

Finally he knows how to run a United States Attorney's office and how to lead others to achieve their maximum potential. He has done just that for 25 years. The Southeastern Division has been a model for the administration of justice and when judged by any standards has been a phenomenal success.

The United States Attorney's Office in Cape Girardeau has continued to be recognized as one of the most effective satellite offices within the Department Justice.

This cooperation was echoed by every elected Prosecuting Attorney of the 18 counties in the Southeastern Division. In a letter dated March 14, 2017, these prosecutors gave their unanimous support to Ferrell stating, "Larry Ferrell is a prosecutor's prosecutor. He is an exceptional trial attorney whose commitment to the Rule of Law and the pursuit of justice is second to none. It would be hard to imagine anyone more deserving or more qualified to lead the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. We therefore wholeheartedly support Mr. Ferrell's nomination to that position."

The above and my personal experience with Larry earns my endorsement.

Whether Ferrell gets selected or not, his career to date has brought pride to the legal profession.

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"Don't Quit"

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.

When care is pressing you down a bit --

Rest if you must, but don't quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a person turns about

When they might have won had they stuck it out.

Don't give up though the pace seems slow --

You may succeed with another blow.

Often the struggler has given up

When he might have captured the victor's cup;

And he learned too late when the night came down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out--

So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,--

It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.

--Author disputed

Gary Rust is the chairman of the board of Rust Communications and a member of the Southeast Missourian editorial board.