While appealing his conviction, Edwards reported to federal prison in 2002, spending eight years in prisons in Fort Worth, Texas, and then Oakdale, Louisiana, as well as six months in home detention and three years on probation.Īll the while, Edwards maintained he had been railroaded by presiding U.S. Whatever consequences flow from this, I’m prepared to face.” I have lived 72 years of my life within the system, I’ll spend the rest of my life within the system. I regret that it has ended this way, but that is the system. I suppose the feds sat by the river long enough, so here comes my body. He was eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison.Īfter jurors returned a guilty verdict, a somber Edwards said on the courthouse steps, “The Chinese have a saying that if you sit by the river long enough, the dead body of your enemy will come floating down the river. He brushed aside that possibility with his usual mix of candor and humor: “I can truthfully say if my sentence is 350 years, I don’t intend to serve,” he quipped. The charges against Edwards brought a maximum sentence of almost 350 years in prison. Trina Edwards says, “His last words were to Eli…” DeBartolo pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to report a felony and received a $1 million fine and two years of probation in return for his testimony against Edwards, saying the cash was an extortion payoff. DeBartolo said he gave Edwards a briefcase stuffed with $400,000 in cash in hopes of getting a riverboat casino license. The bribery scandal likewise cost then-San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo Jr., a friend of Edwards’, his ownership of the NFL team. His son, Stephen, and five other men were also convicted in the same trial.
He was found guilty of extorting nearly $3 million from companies that applied for casino licenses during his last term in office.Ī federal jury deliberated for nine days before finding Edwards guilty on 17 counts of racketeering, mail and wire fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. Long dogged by allegations of skirt-chasing and corruption and tried three times on federal charges, Edwards was convicted in May 2000 for his role in a racketeering scheme involving state riverboat casino licenses.
Although the former governor had other health scares in recent years, friends and family said he remained mentally sharp and active well into his 90s. 2020, Edwards was hospitalized with what were described as breathing problems, later diagnosed as pneumonia. Although the former governor had other health scares in recent years, friends and family said he remained mentally sharp and active well into his 90s.During the coronavirus pandemic in Nov. “I’ve made no bones that I have considered myself on borrowed time for 20 years and we each know that all this fun has to end at some point.”ĭuring the coronavirus pandemic in Nov. “Since I have been in and out of hospitals in recent years with pneumonia and other respiratory problems, causing a lot of people a lot of trouble, I have decided to retain the services of qualified hospice doctors and nurses at my home,” Edwards said in a statement. On July 5, Edwards and his wife Trina announced that he had entered hospice care, though no specific details were given about his condition. (WWL-TV) Edwin Edwards, the colorful and controversial four-term former governor of Louisiana whose federal conviction and 10-year prison sentence earned him a national reputation for corruption has died Monday.
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