I had the pleasure of visiting extensively with Tom Freeland over at the Folo Blog this weekend in follow up to the Scruggs sentencing and it was interesting to get the local take on the sentencing.
A transcript of the sentencing hearing is available here.
The government took no real position at sentencing other than to state that any sentence imposed was within the court’s discretion.
John Keker, Scruggs' attorney, to his credit, relied upon his sentencing memorandum submitted to the Court, and really made no extensive comments.
One of the big questions for the general public, is did Scruggs get the benefit of his plea bargain in this case, and the answer to that is a resounding yes. Judge Biggers calculated the sentencing guideline range at 108 to 135 months, but the maximum term of imprisonment for the conspiracy charge Scruggs pleaded to limited his sentencing exposure to 60 months imprisonment. In my view, 60 months was the only sentence Scruggs could fairly receive given the severity of the conduct – judicial bribery in a case where millions were at stake.
I’ve been to more sentencings in federal court, both as a prosecutor and as a defense attorney, than I care to remember, but the judge's comments directed at Scruggs is one of the lengthiest denunciations of a defendant’s conduct that I’ve ever seen.
Interestingly, Judge Biggers stated that he was not considering any of the other crimes evidence regarding the Joey Langston plea, although the jduge did remark that Scruggs "bribed a judge, corrupted a judge, in another case in another court.” However, the judge said that was probably something Scruggs would have to answer to later.
Judge Biggers noted that this case was really not about so much the amount of money that was given to Judge Lackey of the state court, but that it was about the effect of that bribe, of what the purpose of it was, to corrupt the ruling and the actions of the circuit court.
Maybe someone else can answer this question, but why was Scruggs so intent on getting this case out of the local court system into an arbitration panel? Wouldn’t a guy named Dickie Scruggs want his people deciding his case?
As has been reported extensively, Judge Biggers commented that he saw how easily and quickly Scruggs entered into the bribery scheme, and it made him think that this, perhaps, was not the first time Scruggs had engaged in bribery because he did it so easily.
The judge also commented that Scruggs had committed a reprehensible crime which is one of the most reprehensible crimes that a lawyer can commit - the corruption of the rule of law which he' s sworn to uphold.
Scruggs’ co-conspirator, and former law partner, Sid Backstrom, received a sentence of 28 months, less than the 30 month maximum sentence that was part of the plea agreement. Judge Biggers remarked that he was impressed with Backstrom’s level of remorse.
I’ve commented on several occasions that the defendants in this case seem obsessed with minimizing their criminal conduct, all the more incredible given the gravity of the offense to which they pleaded guilty – judicial bribery.
So, how much time will Scruggs actually serve? He will serve 85% of the 60 months, which is 51 months. He will spend the last 6 months in a halfway house under Bureau of Prison's pollcy, so Scruggs will do 45 months in a federal prison camp, presumably in Pensacola, Florida.
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