Former New Orleans Congressman William Jefferson is expected to remain free today following his new sentencing hearing. Jefferson was released from prison last month after serving more than five years of a 13-year sentence. Loyola University law professor Dane Ciolino says federal prosecutors do not want to retry Jefferson after 7 counts of his conviction were tossed out.
Jefferson was convicted of accepting 400-thousand dollars in bribes and seeking millions more as part of a business dealings in Africa. Ciolino says Jefferson is catching a break, because of a recent Supreme Court ruling that makes it more difficult to convict elected officials on bribery charges.
Cioilno says since the nation’s highest court determined that setting up meetings, calling other public officials or getting gifts do not necessarily qualify as an official act, the term “official act” is not as broad as it once was.