NEW YORK - For the second time, federal prosecutors in Alabama failed to convince a jury that politicians, lobbyists, and gambling interests had committed any crimes in their failed attempt to get the state Legislature to legalize some forms of gambling.
Six defendants, including a casino owner and three current and former state legislators, were found not guilty Wednesday of a raft of corruption and bribery charges stemming from a federal investigation that exposed the often sordid backroom dealing of Alabama politics.
At the heart of the case was an argument about whether that dealing was criminal or simply the messy reality of the legislative process. Two federal juries in Montgomery, Ala., have now agreed that it was not criminal.
Nine defendants were tried last year, but that trial ended with a mix of acquittals and mistrials.
The acquittals Wednesday seemed to put an end to a complicated saga that began several years ago as so-called electronic bingo machines, which are nearly identical in appearance to slot machines, began proliferating around the state.
Arguing that they violated a state constitutional ban on gambling, the governor at the time, Bob Riley, a Republican, started an aggressive campaign to shut down casinos and small bingo parlors.