Former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell speaks in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on April 27, 2016.
Alex Wong / Getty Images
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court vacated former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's corruption conviction in a unanimous decision on Monday.
The court ruled that the jury instructions in McDonnell's trial were erroneous and may have resulted in him being convicted for doing things not illegal.
McDonnell can be retried, however, if the lower court continues to believe there is sufficient evidence to do so under the new standard set forth by the Supreme Court on Monday.
The former governor was convicted for violating the federal honest-services fraud statute following an indictment for his role in a bribery scheme with the head of Star Scientific, a Virginia-based company that was promoting Anatabloc, a dietary supplement.
McDonnell and his wife accepted more than $175,000 in money and luxury goods from Jonnie Williams, Star Scientific’s CEO. In return, the government argued and a jury agreed, McDonnell agreed to use “the power of his office to help Williams’s company.”
The justices had agreed in August 2015 to keep McDonnell out of jail during the appeal, and they appeared skeptical of his conviction when they heard oral arguments in his case this April.
Source BuzzFeed - Politics http://ift.tt/28ZnWSL
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