Dickie Scruggs wins freedom while appeal considered

OXFORD – Richard F. “Dickie” Scruggs will come home to Oxford on $2 million bond while his attorneys appeal a 2009 bribery conviction, a federal judge agreed today.
Senior U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson agreed the former Oxford litigator could be released from his Montgomery, Ala., prison while the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals considers his appeal of a Davidson decision.
May 23, Davidson rejected Scruggs’ contention that he did not seek to bribe then-Hinds Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter when he offered his support to DeLaughter’s quest for a federal judgeship. Scruggs’ brother-in-law, Trent Lott, was one of Mississippi’s two U.S. senators at the time and one half of the state’s decision-makers for federal judicial appointments.
Scruggs contends it was “political speech,” not bribery and appealed.
Scruggs completed his jail sentence for his 2008 guilty plea to a scheme to bribe Circuit Judge Henry Lackey, and he asked Davidson to allow him out of prison while the DeLaughter appeal was considered.
Five years ago this week, Scruggs and four others were arrested and charged in the Lackey case.
Both Lackey and DeLaughter presided over legal-fees lawsuits against Scruggs and others.
• Read more in Tuesday’s Daily Journal.