ABERDEEN, Miss. (AP) — Imprisoned former attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs wants to take his push to vacate his 2009 conviction in a judicial bribery case to a federal appeals court.

The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports (http://bit.ly/KSPrco) that Scruggs filed a motion this week asking a judge to let him file an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson's approval is needed before any appeal can be undertaken. He had not ruled on the motion by Saturday.

Davidson earlier this week dismissed Scruggs' motion to vacate his 2009 guilty plea and sentence for alleged misdeeds in a case surrounding then-Judge Bobby DeLaughter of Hinds County, who presided over a legal-fees lawsuit against Scruggs and others.

Scruggs is serving a seven-year prison term for his DeLaughter conviction. The time was added onto his sentence for a 2007 guilty plea in the conspiracy to bribe Circuit Judge Henry Lackey, who also presided over a legal-fees lawsuit against Scruggs and others.

His anticipated prison release is early 2015.

Scruggs also asks Davidson to recommend the 5th Circuit expedite the appeal before his prison sentence ends so that the appeal's "remedy does not become moot by the passage of time."

 

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