In legal arguments filed Wednesday, Mike Hubbard’s attorneys told a court that Hubbard’s state attorney general was wrong to discount the letter he wrote last month in which he apologised for his actions and asked for leniency from a judge.
The defense said that the prosecution’s “veiled portrayal (of Hubbard’s) apology in crocodile tears, or any other than completely honest was conclusory and speculative and simply erroneous.” Lee County Circuit Judge Jacob Walker agreed. They argued that while Hubbard was compared to an arsonist who seeks forgiveness for a fire, the state is not a danger to society.
Hubbard spent more than one year in prison for a 28-month sentence. He was sentenced after losing appeals challenging his 2016 conviction for violating state ethics laws, including his use of his public office to gain personal financial gain. Hubbard was accused by the prosecution of using Speaker’s office to get clients and invest in his businesses.
Hubbard claimed that contracts were legal work that was not related to his position of House speaker, which he held for almost six years. Hubbard was sentenced to a time in prison because he had “obviously been able to reflect not only upon his actions but also on what the wider implications of his convictions have had for his former constituents as well as the entire political system,” defense claimed.
Hubbard was a representative of an east Alabama congressional district in the Legislature and was immediately removed from office by the conviction. Hubbard played a crucial role in the Republican Party’s 2010 takeover of the Alabama Legislature.
Hubbard will be released from prison January 2023, records indicate, unless Hubbard is granted early release.
