Lawyers for former House Speaker Mike Hubbard have asked the Alabama Supreme Court to reconsider a decision upholding his ethics conviction.
Hubbard’s attorneys are seeking a rarely granted reversal of a court decision. His attorneys argued that state prosecutors stretched the meaning of the Alabama ethics law and that parts of the law were unclear.
“Deprivation of liberty is fair only if the defendant crossed a legal line that was clearly ascertainable to him in advance. This case presents nothing of that sort,” attorneys wrote in the motion filed last month.
The Alabama Supreme Court last month overturned five of the ethics convictions while upholding six others.
Hubbard was for years one of the state’s most powerful politicians until the conviction ended his career.
Hubbard, the architect of the GOP’s takeover of the Alabama Legislature in 2010, was a legislator from Auburn and former chairman of the Alabama Republican Party. He was elected House speaker soon after the Republicans consolidated their control but was automatically removed from office after his felony conviction.
Prosecutors accused Hubbard of monetizing his public office to obtain clients and investments for his businesses. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said last month that Hubbard’s actions were “corrupt and betrayed the public trust.” His defense lawyers maintained the transactions were all above-board.
Hubbard was convicted by a Lee County jury in 2016.