Judge grants bond to Scruggs during appeal of bribery conviction

OXFORD — A federal judge says former attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs may return home to Oxford on $2 million bond while his attorneys appeal a 2009 bribery conviction.

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports Senior District Judge Glen Davidson set the bond yesterday for Scruggs, who has been imprisoned in Montgomery, Ala.

Scruggs contends that his offer of support to a Hinds County judge was not bribery but political speech. The judge, Bobby DeLaughter, was hoping for appointment to the federal bench and was presiding over a legal-fees lawsuit against Scruggs.

Davidson rejected Scruggs’ appeal in May.

Scruggs has finished a sentence for a scheme to bribe Circuit Judge Henry Lackey, and asked Davidson to let him out of prison during the DeLaughter appeal.

— Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal