The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 1/23/8
The professional stink coming from guilty pleas in two Mississippi judicial bribery cases is an odor that will not soon evaporate, legal community leaders say.
It’s also caused a serious public image problem for the Mississippi Bar, say legal ethics professors and private attorneys.
“The public perception issue certainly is a concern,” said Larry Houchins, executive director of the Mississippi Bar Association, which with the Magnolia Bar Association comprises the state’s legal community.
Driving the perception problem and the concern are the indictments and guilty pleas in federal judicial bribery cases that have ensnared famed Oxford attorney Richard F. “Dickie” Scruggs, prominent Booneville attorney Joey Langston and half a dozen others, most of them attorneys.