Gulf Coast lawyer Richard Salloum told the jury in the judicial bribery scandal that certain GC judges would issue orders in cases before they had been assigned to them.

This is old hat. The Supremes ordered the courts to change local procedures so that all cases statewide were assigned mostly randomly back in 2003. That fact by itself isn't troubling; it used to happen all the time. Hinds County Circuit Court was notorious for this.

Salloum's testimony isn't particularly damning by itself; the district composed of Harrison, Hancock, and Stone Counties has always had a weird system, wherein judges that weren't assigned to try the case would hear dispositive motions in the case. It just made no damn sense at all. If this is what the prosecution is banking on, they need help.