as well as the threat of more time – may have helped persuade Mississippi’s former “king of torts” to cooperate more fully with federal authorities.
“I’ve heard there’s nothing that induces you to cooperate so much as hearing the squeak of the jail door behind you and the turn of the key in the lock,” said Aaron Condon, professor emeritus of the University of Mississippi School of Law.
When Scruggs pleaded guilty last week, he already was serving five years in prison for his part in a conspiracy that included paying $40,000 to try to get a Lafayette County judge to rule in Scruggs’ favor in a legal-fees dispute.
The possibility of moving to a different prison also may have appealed to Scruggs, who currently is being held in the Lafayette County jail.
Magnolia Tribune
