JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (CN) - A federal judge on Wednesday denied former Rep. Corrine Brown's requests that he either toss her fraud convictions or give her a new trial.
Brown, a Democrat, served in U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2017. She was convicted on May 11, 2017 of 18 of 22 felony charges, including filing false tax returns and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. She is due to be sentenced on Nov. 16, 2017, and faces a lengthy prison term.
In a pair of motions filed in the federal court in Jacksonville, Brown's attorney, James Smith, argued the court prevented his client from presenting evidence that could have cleared her of the charges, and wrongly replaced a juror who allegedly claimed “the Holy Spirit” told him Brown was innocent.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan replaced the juror with an alternate and had the jury resume their deliberations. A verdict was reached the next day.
On Wednesday, Corrigan ruled Brown had “received a fair trial and a considered verdict from a properly constituted jury.
He also stated “the jury’s verdict was supported by sufficient evidence to demonstrate Brown’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
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