Siegelman faces new sentencing as appeals run out

Published 3:44 pm Saturday, June 23, 2012

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Former Democratic Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy appear to be near the end of the road in the appeal of their 2006 convictions on bribery and other charges.

Siegelman faces a new sentencing hearing Aug. 3 before U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller and will likely be headed back to federal prison. Siegelman has been free on an appeal bond since 2007 after serving nine months of a little more than seven-year sentence. Scrushy has completed much of his sentence and is under home confinement in Houston.

Siegelman and Scrushy were accused of participating in a scheme where Siegelman appointed Scrushy to an important hospital regulatory board in exchange for Scrushy arranging for $500,000 in contributions to Siegelman’s campaign for a statewide referendum to legalize a lottery to help fund education programs.

Defense attorneys argued it was not a bribe and no different from when any elected official appoints a campaign donor to a government position after an election.

Attorneys for the government have argued in briefs that the arrangement between Siegelman and Scrushy amounted to a bribe.

Attorneys for Siegelman and Scrushy say when the U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to hear their final appeal it left unanswered the question about the use of campaign donations in federal bribery cases.

Siegelman was initially sentenced to a little more than seven years in prison and Scrushy to less than seven years. Fuller resentenced Scrushy earlier this year after an appeals court dropped two counts from the charges against each man. Siegelman’s attorneys are expected to ask for a reduction in his sentence when the former governor faces Fuller in August.

Montgomery attorney Susan James, who represented Siegelman at his original sentencing, said she will be Siegelman’s lead attorney at the sentencing hearing. Montgomery attorney Joe Espy has notified Fuller that he will too represent the former governor at the hearing.

With the sentencing drawing near, former Democratic Party executive committee member Pam Miles of Huntsville is encouraging supporters to write President Barack Obama and urge him to pardon Siegelman. She operates an Internet email network for Siegelman’s backers.

Miles says followers are pursuing all avenues to prove Siegelman’s innocence. Miles says she “can’t bear the thought’ of Siegelman returning to prison.

“We can’t forget about Don,” Miles said.

Siegelman declined to comment concerning his upcoming sentencing hearing or the efforts by his supporters to keep him from returning to prison.

One of those supporters, Maggie Richards, said she has continued to support Siegelman because she believes “Siegelman is an honest man, something that seems to be very unique to Alabama politics these days.”

She went on to say she thinks Siegelman is one of Alabama’s most honest recent governors and finds the way he was treated to be disgusting.