By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – A federal judge has refused to grant a new trial for former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth C-E-O Richard Scrushy. U-S District Judge Mark Fuller ruled today (Wednesday) that the jury that convicted Siegelman and Scrushy in June was not unfairly influenced by outside information. Siegelman and Scrushy had asked for a new trial. They claimed that jurors communicated with each other by e-mail during the trial and that they considered outside material from the Internet during deliberations. Fuller ruled there was evidence that one juror downloaded the indictment of Scrushy and Siegelman from the Internet and that the jury foreman downloaded instructions on being a jury foreman. But he says those incidents were not sufficient for him to order a new trial. Attorneys for Siegelman and Scrushy have said they expected to appeal to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals if Fuller denied the new trial motion. Siegelman and Scrushy were convicted after a two-month trial on bribery and conspiracy charges. Siegelman was also convicted on a separate obstruction of justice charge.
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