The Supreme Court Monday denied former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman’s request to review his 2006 convictions on corruption charges.

The appeal was turned away without comment, according to The Associated Press.

Siegelman’s attorneys in February asked the high court to consider when a political contribution becomes a bribe, a key element of the former governor’s defense.

Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy were convicted over donations made by Scrushy to the governor’s 1999 campaign for a statewide lottery. After receiving two checks totaling $500,000, Scrushy was appointed to the state’s Certificate of Need board, which reviews and approves hospital improvements.

Siegelman has maintained there was no explicit promise that the contributions would lead to an appointment. In the writ, attorneys for the former governor cite McCormick V. United States, a 1991 case that found that contributions are a crime if they are made “in return for an explicit promise or undertaking by the official to perform or not to perform an official act.”

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Siegelman’s conviction on the bribery charge in May of 2011, finding that the standard for conviction was not as high as Siegelman argued.

Siegelman was sentenced to more than seven years in prison in 2007, but was released on an appeal bond in 2008 after nine months behind bars.