The Nation : Gov. Edwards Faces Trial

Gov. Edwin W. Edwards, his brother and three others face a second trial on federal racketeering and fraud charges after a federal judge refused to declare them innocent. The first trial ended Dec. 18 with a hung jury. U.S. District Judge Marcel Livaudais set the new trial for March 10, rejecting the defendants’ arguments that the evidence presented in the first trial was too flimsy. Edwards and the others were accused in an indictment last year of illegally using their influence to obtain state certification for hospital and nursing home projects in which they held interests.