The Birmingham News reports that the Fairfield City Council is holding a public hearing next week “regarding the possibility of changing the name of Richard M. Scrushy Parkway”. Um, yeah; it might be a good idea to name the road after someone who isn’t a convicted felon.
It’s precisely for reasons like this that there’s a law in Louisiana that a public building, bridge, etc. can’t be named for a living person. The building I worked in at La Tech was named for a guy named Kenny, and he later was convicted, hence the law.
Mr. Scrushy spread around a lot of cash before he got into trouble, and it’s my understanding that he liked to see his name on roads, buildings, etc. I guess that was his quid pro quo. He donated the building for our local library, and it was named after him. We’re doing our best to build a new one now, and it won’t have a giant portrait of him hanging in the lobby.
Sara and I talk about that every time we go into B’ham.
When he FINALLY goes to jail, how long do you suppose it will take before the prison is named for him?
[...] The public hearing over whether or not to rename Richard Scrushy Parkway turned into a shouting match that spilled out into the street. Local talk radio host Frank Matthews, a long-time Scrushy supporter, argued against the name change, saying Scrushy had not been found guilty. Huh? In what alternate universe? I guess Frank missed this: In June 2005, a Birmingham jury acquitted Scrushy on criminal charges related to the massive accounting scandal at HealthSouth. This past June, Scrushy was convicted by a federal jury on six charges against him – bribery, conspiracy and four counts of honest services mail fraud. [...]