Ex-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin seeks to have conviction tossed

Attorneys for former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who is serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison for corruption, are seeking to have his 2014 conviction overturned because of what they say were flawed instructions given to the jury, court papers show. He was thrust into the national spotlight in 2005 when the storm's waters overwhelmed levees and flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, killing 1,500 people and causing some $80 billion in damage. In a court papers filed on Tuesday, Nagin's attorneys said the judge in the case erred in telling jurors to find him guilty of nine counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy even if he would have acted in the same way without the inducement of a payoff.

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