U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upholds convictions against former governor Don Siegelman

Don Siegelman

An appellate court today upheld convictions against former Alabama governor Don Siegleman in a case that has become widely known among many legal experts as the most notorious political prosecution in the nation's history.

The ruling from the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals can be read at the end of this post. We will have an analysis of the court's findings tomorrow.

Here is how the Montgomery Advertiserdescribed today's ruling, which came on the heels of oral arguments in January:

A federal appeals court Wednesday denied former Gov. Don Siegelman's bid for a new trial, saying he relied on arguments that judges rejected in an appeal from his co-defendant in their 2006 trial on bribery and corruption charges.

Siegelman argued that the district court should have considered whether then-U.S. Attorney Leura Canary, who recused herself from Siegelman's investigation in 2002, had honored the recusal. Former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy made the same arguments in his motion for a new trial, citing emails from a whistleblowers in which Canary suggested a gag order be placed on Siegelman during the trial; forwarded an email on its coverage and approved a staffing decision.

The three-judge panel rejected Scrushy's argument in 2013, writing "there is no evidence that Canary's emails influenced any decisions made by the U.S. Attorney's office in prosecuting Scrushy." In the former governor's case, the court wrote that it had to follow its decision on Scrushy.

"Regardless of whether Canary possessed a stronger conflict of interest with respect to Siegelman, our determination in Scrushy that there was no evidence that Canary influenced the prosecution team , , , binds Siegelman on this appeal," the opinion said.