Legal News Line – Scruggs asks Court to Toss Guilty Plea
Lawyers for disgraced attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs on Monday asked the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to toss out his 2009 guilty plea to charges of bribing a judge.
During Monday’s arguments, Edward “Chip” Robertson Jr. and former Mississippi attorney general Michael Moore said Scruggs did not offer former-Hinds County Judge Bobby DeLaughter “anything of value.”
Scruggs, who at the time was serving a five-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2008 to bribing Lafayette County Judge Henry Lackey, had said he would suggest DeLaughter be given a federal judgeship. Scruggs, 66, insists that was “political speech.”
The government, represented by Robert Norman, argued that the suggestion of a federal judgeship has value.
Legal News Line
3/5/13
Magnolia Tribune
