NMC – Was Dickie Scruggs II also a state felony?

The Government’s Factual Basis implies that the scheme was also a state felony…

The factual basis used by the prosecution yesterday incorporates a state criminal statute as part of outlining the crime relating to Scruggs and the circuit judge. The statute is cited and then attached to the factual basis. Here’s what the document says about it:

[T]he citizens of the State of Mississippi had a right to expect a circuit judge to exercise his duties in a fair and impartial manner, without affording litigants on one side of the case secret access not enjoyed by the other. That requirement of fairness and impartiality is embodied in Mississippi Code Annotated, Section 97-11-53.

NMC
2/11/9