Ex-Gov. Edwards out of prison

BATON ROUGE, La. – Former Gov. Edwin Edwards was released from federal prison Thursday after serving eight years on a corruption conviction and will be allowed to complete his sentence in home detention.

A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Chris Burke, said Edwards was granted home confinement rather than having to serve his remaining term at a halfway house.

Edwards, 83, went to prison in October 2002 on a 10-year sentence for a bribery and extortion scheme to rig Louisiana’s riverboat casino licensing process during his final term in office, which ended in 1996.