Kilpatrick appeals to Supreme Court in corruption case

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his public corruption conviction and 28-year prison sentence.

A response to the petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave filed this month is due Feb. 19, according to High Court records.

Harold Gurewitz, Kilpatrick’s attorney, told The Detroit News last year that an appeal to the nation’s highest court would be filed in mid-January. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night.

A Supreme Court appeal is the former mayor’s last legal hope after a panel of 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges in October refused his bid to have the full court hear his appeal to one of the longest corruption sentences in U.S. history.

Kilpatrick was convicted of using his position as mayor of Detroit and state House representative to execute a wide-ranging racketeering conspiracy involving extortion, bribery and fraud. He and Bobby Ferguson, a former city contractor, were found guilty of running a criminal enterprise out of the mayoral office in a five-month trial in 2013.

Both men have sought to overturn their convictions, alleging prejudicial testimony from federal agents during the trial. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed both convictions last year.

In December, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Ferguson, denying him the chance to ask the justices to overturn his public corruption conviction that sent him to prison for 21 years.