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Eleventh Circuit denies Alabama ex-governor request for en banc review

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Friday denied the petition of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman (D) and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy for an en banc rehearing of their convictions on charges of corruption. The petitioners cited as grounds for rehearing the court's alleged misinterpretation of 18 USC § 1512(b)(3). Specifically, petitioners asserted that questions of exceptional importance exist in evaluating:Whether the word "explicit," in the "explicit promise or undertaking" element of proof in alleged bribery cases involving campaign or issue- advocacy contributions, means what the word means in ordinary usage, i.e., expressly communicated, the opposite of implicit – or whether (as the panel concluded) an implicit quid pro quo linkage counts as "explicit," so long as there was a particular action that was implicitly to be exchanged for the contribution.The court, however, rejected the request for review. Siegelman and Scrushy now plan to appeal to the US Supreme Court. In March, a three-judge panel upheld the 2006 convictions of Siegelman and Scrushy on federal bribery and corruption charges. The appeals court reversed two counts of mail fraud against Siegelman based a lack of evidence, but upheld the remaining five charges. All of the charges against Scrushy were upheld. Last week, Alabama's Jefferson County Circuit Court began hearing a $2.6 billion derivative lawsuit brought by HealthSouth shareholders against Scrushy for his role in the accounting fraud scheme at the company.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on May 17, 2009 (boomark / email).