This is a good first step.  There is still a lot of rotten meat left on the perverbial justice bone.

Huge kudos to FOLO, Insurance Coverage Blog, and Anita Lee who have all shown real leadership in covering this.

WSJ Law Blog, Overlawyered, Legal Newsline, Phunk and Wagnalls, Shelby Dupree, and a host of others deserve a lot of kudos in helping to keep the story pushed out.

You have specific examples, I assume?

Scruggs testified against Minor.  Someone told me that that would prevent the Federal Bureau of Prisons from placing Scruggs in Pensacola but I have not independently researched it.

The Institute for Legal Reform has commented.  Where are comments from his family member, Jim Hood?  Maybe John O’Brien, Jerry Mitchell or Marsha Thompson can get a quote out of him.

BOOOOOOM.... I am sure the echo will be loud and long..... This, I am sure is the FIRST of many dominoes to start falling.  It will be interesting to see who is number 2, 3, 4 and 5.  ?????  It is truly a shame it has to be this way, but when will the people EVER LEARN.... Folks are tired of the Same Ole Same Ole..... The reason as I see it that Obammy is doing so well is that folks are tired of the Same Ole Same Ole.  Senator McCain had better get some fresh ideas and start getting his message out OR we are going to be in for a long 4 years.  May God have mercy on Mr. Scruggs.

JT and Dave do a great job.  As was told to me by Hampton “they don’t know what they are talking about” on aliens.  Clarion Ledger

Jane commented:

Scruggs testified against Minor.  Someone told me that that would prevent the Federal Bureau of Prisons from placing Scruggs in Pensacola but I have not independently researched it.

WLOX reports this

Scruggs will serve his sentence at a facility in Pensacola, and must report to prison August 4th.

Laughing,

“There may be things you can do to help yourself in the future.  People who are not lawyers are getting considerable money from a legal settlement.” [he noted that Balducci said that Scruggs knew where the bodies were buried.  “If you want to uncover where the bodies are buried it might help you.”

I found this in a cert petition:

“As the district court explained, Bureau of Prisons policy
also provides that government witnesses and the individuals against
whom they have testified should not be incarcerated in the same
institution (Pet. App. B3 n.2; see also 28 C.F.R. 524.72(h)); the
reason for the policy is the “serious and constant risk that prisoners
will attempt to retaliate against government witnesses or coerce them into falsely recanting their trial testimony"”

I think that the BOP decides where the inmate is to be imprisoned and that Biggers said he would recommend Pensacola.  But, again, I’m not an expert in this area.

You’re right, I heard that Biggers recommended Pensacola but that wouldn’t necessarily mean that’s where he ends up.

Backstrom at 1.00p?  Zach next week?

It’s hard to imagine Paul and Dickie getting into a tangle or whatever - especially if they don’t have access to any prison-made alcohol - but who could have predicted any of this?

I’m sure that BOP policy gives them lots of discretion as to where to place inmates.

Thank you, Judge Biggers. Another honest judge who could not be bought with the sweet words of Williiam Winter and Ole Miss’ Khayat.

When a person thinks he /she is above the law they are adisgrace to their profession and the state of Mississippi.  I still think the fine is far too light in regards to the money he has gotten from his deals.

from the Daily Mississippian:

“This is a sad day but you are not the first person of your standing to be here. I have had the unpleasant duty to sentence lawyers, doctors, those of the gospel, bank owners and tellers,” Biggers said. “But you may be the saddest of them all. You thought you needed money, but you didn’t need it at all. You are guilty of corrupting of the rule of law, which you had an oath to uphold.”

I think a search of cases involving tampering with the judicial system is not new nor rare. Each year many are caught and sentenced for breaking the law regarding a judge or a jury. Why is it that these cases have evoked a pickup load of ink and toner to write about and many radio hours talking about, and the other cases are never heard from?  Why do these cases get so much attention by the conservative press, blogs,and talk shows when so many others have been prosecuted and have become history without much fanfare?  A $40,000. bribe is not a large bribe when compared with other cases.  So what makes these different?  I hate to say that it seems to stir more folks up when the defendants are successful instead of poor.  Sentencing these guys will not fix the system because the system has obviously been open to such activity or it would have never been attempted.  After the OJ verdict was read years ago crowds celebrated in cities around the country. Many of the rest of us were horrified at their reaction.  It is easy for our emotional hope to get int he way of logical thinking as folks seem to be verbalizing a desire for more time, more fine and more blood for Scruggs, et al. Why can’t we let the system work in this case, too, rather than feeling the need for all the hoopla that has been stirred up over the past months?

tttf:  The man made billions by tweaking the system.... billions I might add that were paid mostly by everyone who purchased goods bought and sold in the USA.  So it is a big deal when a “powerful man” gets brought back to earth due to his own callous disregard for the rules of law.  The very law he swore an oath to uphold.  Should we feel real bad for Dickie, after 5 years in a federal minimum security jail he will still have access to his fortune, (therefore, he will have many still kissing his ...... ).

Dickie, my friend, I will serve that time for you for 20 million.

Let us not forget that when Dickie is released, he can take up residence in his vacation home in Florida, never to return to the city in which he was disgraced. Plus, it is amazing to me, with who all appeared at his sentencing, missing in action, was his brother-in-law, Trent Lott, with whom he had numerous dealings. It is also still a curious note the timing of Trent’s retirement, following a successful re-election, and Dickie’s indictment. Will THAT truth ever be known?  ... And when will P.L. Blake be brought to justice as Dickie’s money man or all the other bodies buried out there? Just wondering? Kudos to all who have contributed to keeping the little folk informed!

...and quietly the statute of limitations creeps up on the Katrina lawsuits, that’ll learn everbody...you just don’t go toe to toe with Big Insurance...not in this state.  It feels like the last scene in the Usual Suspects as Kevin Spacey limps away to freedom while everyone else is chasing “Keyser Soze"..."The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

JDberry at 11: 07 am what is implied by “ people who are not lawyers are getting considerable money from a legal settlement?”

Falcon, you will have to ask Judge Biggers what the implication was.

But it’s generally held that those such as the infamous P.L. Blake is to whom he is referring.

tttf: I can’t speak for all, but I was more interested in Dickie Scruggs’ problems than in others’ because I have waited for YEARS to have his unethical behaviour at least acknowledged. While he was being lauded by the public generally, his lack of ethics was obvious.

The tobacco litigation established that he would steal documents, pay witnesses, leak documents (to Congress, for goodness’ sake, and worse than that to Waksman, who is too stupid to do anything but grandstand), manipulate the press and pay PL Blake, his informant and who knows whom else. His moral compass was again revealed with the Katrina cases.

Where has the Bar Association been all these years? Especially when individual lawyers complained about this sort of behaviour? What about the press? How about a public statement from the state’s public law school, or was the school bought off?

As far as I know, Judge Acker was the first to call Dickie’s hand (although he was undermined by a bone-headed decision from the judge who heard the contempt issues). The next one was Judge Lackey, followed by the US Attorney’s office.

But the one who really got Dickie in the end was Dickie. In my humble opinion, he got by with so much for so long that he felt invulnerable. If Judge Lackey had just been corruptible by that “small” bribe, Dickie could now be keeping on keeping on.

Pappy: How sad that anyone put his faith in Dickie Scruggs. I’m sure there are many Katrina victims who still suffer. I am not sure what how many of them actually have a legitimate cause of action, but those who do need to find a legitimate lawyer. Not a press hog or “friend of the little man,” but a real lawyer. The kind who would say, You don’t have a cause of action.

This is another in a long line of examples of the old adage - “money can’t buy happiness”.  If Mr. Scruggs was content with his wealth, status and now evidently ill-gained success he wouldn’t have risked it all for a few million $$ in legal fees.  Not only has he tainted the rule of law and himself but he has taken his firm, friends, and son down in his unabashed greed and arrogance.  My sincere hope is that the rest of the bacteria in the MS legal cesspool (i.e. Moore and Hood) will get a dose of disinfection in the near future.  Word