Supporters of Former Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford Who Is Serving a 15-Year Sentence for Corruption, Will Petition President Obama for his Release

Then Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford waits for court to start at the Federal Building in Tuscaloosa, Ala., for the closing arguments in his federal bribery trial Wednesday, October 28, 2009. (The Birmingham News FILE /Tamika Moore)

Birmingham activists will travel to Selma this week with a message to President Barack Obama, “Free Larry Langford.”

Supporters of former Mayor Langford said they plan to use Obama’s appearance at 50th anniversary Bloody Sunday commemoration activities as an opportunity ask him to commute Langford’s prison sentence.

Langford is serving a 15-year sentence at a federal prison medical center in Kentucky following his conviction on corruption charges related to Jefferson County’s sewer system during his time on the county commission. He is scheduled to be released in 2023.

Obama will be in Selma Saturday.

“In April, Larry will have served five years of a 15-year sentence, despite the fact that his rapidly declining health that encouraged the warden at FMC Lexington to recommend his immediate compassionate release,” activist Frank Matthews of the Outcast Voters League said in a statement today. “Larry turns 69 in March and suffers from a number of significant health problems”

In addition, Matthews noted that Langford received a significantly longer prison sentence than his convicted co-conspirators.

Langford was convicted in October 2009 of taking about $235,000 in bribes in exchange for giving county bond business to investment banker Bill Blount.

Both Blount and former lobbyist Al LaPierre were also convicted and released.

Click here to read more

Source: AL.com |  Joseph D. Bryant | jbryant@al.com