Sen. Scott Beason (R-Gardendale).

Prosecutors in the public corruption trial of Milton McGregor and five other defendants today played recordings of Sen. Scott Beason and other legislators making disparaging comments about black voters, the Montgomery Advertiser reports. The recording, in which Beason refers to Green County blacks as “aborigines” all but derailed the prosecution in the first trial last summer. When playing the tapes in court Friday, lead federal prosecutor Kendall Day called the comments “hateful.”