NU Online News Service, May 31, 12:00 p.m.EDT

Former prominent Mississippi plaintiffs' attorney Richard“Dickie” Scruggs, reviled for his pursuit of insurance companiesfollowing Hurricane Katrina, lost a bid to get out of prison.

Scruggs, known as the “King of Torts” for his tobacco, asbestosand insurance-related lawsuits, lost a motion to vacate one of twoconvictions for attempting to bribe two state circuit courtjudges.

Scruggs is currently serving a 7-year sentence at a prison campin Montgomery, Ala., after pleading guilty in 2008 to charges thathe attempted to bribe the judges in order to get a favorable rulingconcerning the division of legal fees in asbestos andKatrina-related insurance settlements.

According to court documents in the U.S. District Court for theNorthern District of Mississippi, Scruggs attempts to use recentcase law to convince Judge Glen H. Davidson that the scheme tobribe the judge in the asbestos case “did not involve the corerequirement of a bribe.” Therefore, Scruggs says, he is innocent ofthe crime to which he pleaded guilty.

Scruggs' team told then-Judge Bobby DeLaughter that Scruggscould use the influence of his brother-in-law, then-Sen. TrentLott, to get DeLaughter a federal judgeship in return for afavorable ruling.

But since the offer was verbal, it cannot constitute a thing ofvalue and therefore it cannot be quid pro quo—a core requirement ofa bribe, claims Scruggs.

Judge Davidson disagrees, saying “the evidence overwhelminglyshows that [Scruggs] had specific intent to offer the lure of afederal judgeship to then-Judge Bobby DeLaughter to obtain afavorable ruling in the litigation pending before him.”

Scruggs filed papers May 30 to take his argument to the FifthCircuit Court of Appeals.

The DeLaughter bribery case followed Scruggs' indictment oncharges related to the attempted bribery of Judge Henry Lackey.

Scruggs and his son, as well as several associates, conspired tobribe Lackey in hopes of getting a favorable ruling in a caseinvolving the split of about $26.5 million in legal fees from asettlement with State Farm.

Lackey reported the bribe attempt to authorities and worked withinvestigators.