EDWARDS' LAWYERS: JUDGE ON PAIN PILLS

BATON ROUGE - Edwin Edwards' lawyers lodged new allegations Wednesday
in their attempts to free the former Louisiana governor, including
claims that painkillers may have hindered the judge's abilities in the
corruption case.

Defense attorney Mike Small said further details about jurors,
witnesses and the judge show the trial was "grossly unfair," Edwards
did not have all the necessary information to properly defend himself
and the guilty verdict should be dismissed.

Edwards was convicted in May 2000, along with his son Stephen and
three other men, of extorting applicants for riverboat casino licenses
in Louisiana. He is serving a 10-year sentence at a federal prison in
Fort Worth.

The motions filed in a Baton Rouge federal court seek to overturn the
conviction and sentence and remove the presiding judge, U.S. District
Judge Frank Polozola, and a judge who made earlier rulings in the
case, U.S. District Judge John Parker.

Defense attorneys said they had new information that
showed:

. Polozola may have been heavily medicated during the trial, under the
influence of strong painkillers for a back injury that could have
impaired his judgment. Earlier reported court records show Polozola
was filling a prescription for the narcotic painkiller OxyContin
during a period in 1999 when he was making pretrial decisions in the
Edwards case.

. Prosecutors failed to explain the full details of a plea agreement
made with a key witness in the case, former casino owner Robert
Guidry, that proved Guidry had a financial motive to testify against
Edwards.

. One juror was biased against Edwards because she believed he failed
to use his influence to aid in the investigation of her 2-year-old
daughter's death. And another juror said he was told that if the jury
didn't reach a verdict, the jurors could be prosecuted and jailed.

. Prosecutors used a conflicting theory about evidence in the
riverboat case when they presented the information in a separate,
related trial for one of Edwards' codefendants.

. Prosecutors didn't tell Edwards that a second witness, John
Brotherton, was writing a book at the time about his role in the
Edwards case that described Brotherton's financial problems and
provided a motive to testify against Edwards.

Edwards' lawyers filed the motion to vacate the conviction and
sentence only a week before the Feb. 24 deadline to make such a request.

Dozens of pages of documents deal with Polozola's possible impairments
because of the painkillers he was prescribed after a 1997 car accident.

Polozola filed a lawsuit after the accident, and his deposition in the
civil case was sealed.

Edwards' lawyers want to see the deposition, acknowledging they don't
know the extent of Polozola's use of the painkiller during and after
the trial or whether it altered his judgment.

In other documents, defense lawyers said Guidry testified in the
riverboat trial that he did not have immunity from the state's ability
to recover financial penalties up to $214 million for his role in the
corruption scheme.

However, Small said Guidry indicated in testimony in a separate
proceeding after the trial that he had a "guarantee" from the federal
government that he would be limited to a $3.5 million fine outlined in
his plea agreement.

Edwards' attorneys said they also have information that several jurors
"engaged in misconduct" before deliberations including: a juror's
spouse reporting to the juror what happened when the jury was out of
the courtroom, jurors saying they had their minds made up early in the
case and jurors watching TV, reading newspapers and discussing the
case despite instruction not to do so.

Lawyers for Edwards also asked for the ability to question Juror 68,
who was dismissed from the case after stalling deliberations, and to
review a letter from that juror's attorney which has been sealed.

Edwards was convicted of racketeering, extortion and fraud in the
scheme to rig the riverboat casino licensing during his fourth and
final term in office. Businessman Bobby Johnson, cattleman Cecil Brown
and former Edwards aide Andrew Martin also were convicted.