Throughout this long, hot summer, Montgomery has been treated to a sort of trial lawyer’s festival. Every night the local television stations broadcast footage of them, big smiles on their faces, striding along confidently beside their clients toward a federal court room where the legislative vote-buying case, commonly known as the bingo trial, is entering its fifth week.
There are nine defendants, so there are a lot of lawyers. Four of the defendants are current or former state senators, accused of taking bribes to vote for a pro-gambling bill from VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor, another defendant, and Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley, who has pleaded guilty along with two others in this case and testified for the prosecution.
Much of the political history of post-Wallace Alabama has been played out in courtrooms, including cases which resulted in the conviction of two former governors and the former mayor of the state’s biggest city, Birmingham. But the bingo trial is the being Twittered, and with a witness list that could populate a sprawling Southern novel, it has produced a gem in this seedling genre of reportage.
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