Mark Ciavarella, also a former Pennsylvania judge implicated in the juvenile sentencing scandal, was sentenced to 28 years in prison [JURIST report] in August. A jury in the US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania reached a split decision [JURIST report] in Ciavarella's April corruption trial, convicting him of 12 counts, including racketeering, money laundering and conspiracy, and acquitting him of 27 counts, including extortion. Judge Edwin Kosik had previously rejected [JURIST report] joint plea agreements [text, PDF] from Conahan and Ciavarella, finding that plea bargaining to honest services fraud and tax evasion charges demonstrated that the men did not accept responsibility and that the disbarment and 87-month prison sentences were too lenient [JURIST op-ed]. Conahan and Ciavarella were indicted in September 2009, following a withdrawal of the guilty pleas they entered [JURIST reports] in February 2009.