Oh my sweet Christ. Today, the prosecution in the judicial bribery case unloaded with both barrells as former chancellor J. N. Randall, who was appointed by Gov. Ray Mabus to the bench, testified that 1) Minor got him the appointment; and 2) Minor coerced him into manipulating the docket and reversing judicial decisions. We Mississippi lawyers joke about this sort of thing happening all the time, but we rarely mean it. The most damning statement from Randall:

Once on the bench, a lawsuit was filed in his court, in which Peoples Bank in Biloxi, represented by Minor, sued an insurance company, United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., over covering a legal defense.

He said it was unusual for his court to take contract cases. The defendant, he said, is entitled to a jury trial, which is not available in that court for such cases.

After a request from the insurance company, Randall decided the case should be transferred to a Circuit Court — a decision that was followed by a conversation between Minor and Randall in the judge's chambers.

"Mr. Minor did not want it transferred to Circuit Court and he did not want it specifically to be assigned to the judge it was assigned to," he said.

Minor told him the Circuit Court judge did not like him and that if he could, he would "cut something off of Paul Minor."

"A part of his anatomy?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Ruth Morgan, to which Randall said yes.

Minor asked Randall to get the case back, at which time he would show through discovery that the case is a Chancery Court matter. Randall agreed.

Randall was then asked to rule on a motion that would have forced the insurance company to disclose a voluminous amount of material it considered to be privileged.

Randall said there was too much information for him to review, so as a senior judge, he assigned the task to Teel.

Teel ruled all the materials would be admissible, prompting USF&G to scream "bloody murder," Randall said. "They were very upset about it."

Randall then reviewed Teel's ruling, deciding he was uncomfortable turning over all the material. "So, I said, 'No, I don't think that's right. I'm going to reconsider that."

The decision promptly drew a visit from an "extremely upset" Minor to Randall's Gulfport chambers, Randall said. He "basically just told me, 'You had messed up the case real bad.'"

The word "messed," however, was actually a four-letter word beginning with 'f,' he said. "I'd never been addressed that way as a judge nor as an attorney ... I mean, he was really mad," he said.

The two agreed to bump the case over to Teel.

When asked why he did not take action against Minor, Randall said one reason was because "Mr. Minor has money, and judges have to run for election. Sometimes I wonder why I didn't."

Man oh man. This is straight out of a Grisham novel, complete with the trite electoral morality tale and the vicious fighting over insurance douments.

In other legal news, Edgar Ray Killen's trial is headed to the jury. So the show trial in Philadelphia has run quicker than anticipated. Additionally, AG Jim Hood has asked the court for a manslaughter instruction.

That doesn't sound good to me.