Birmingham, AL – A lawyer for former state Sen. E.B McClain has asked a federal judge to grant his client a new trial on corruption charges.
McClain, a Democrat from Midfield, and the Rev. Samuel Pettagrue of Birmingham were each convicted on 48 counts of mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and bribery last week.
Attorney John Robbins filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Birmingham saying the government's case was insufficient to sustain the conviction, which ended McClain's 14-year Senate career.
Robbins also said that prosecutors were unfair in the manner they excluded potential jurors and renewed his motion for a judgment of acquittal.
Jurors found McClain schemed to take more than $300,000 of the $758,000 in state funds he obtained for Pettagrue's community outreach programs.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)