JACKSON, Miss. — He was an internationally acclaimed prosecutor before becoming a well-respected judge on the Hinds County bench. Now Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter is expected to take his seat behind bars after pleading guilty Thursday to obstruction of justice for lying to an FBI agent investigating corruption.

It is the tragic end to what seemed like a fairy tale career, captured in part in the 1996 Rob Reiner film, Ghosts of Mississippi, which described events leading to the successful reprosecution in 1994 of Klansman Byron De La Beckwith.