ABERDEEN (AP) — Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal obstruction of justice charge, ending a respected legal career that had been sullied by scandal.

The plea deal avoids a trial, which had been set for Aug. 17. Prosecutors dropped charges of conspiracy and mail fraud.

Prosecutors recommended an 18-month sentence for the suspended judge. He faces as much as 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson won’t decide his sentence until a pre-sentence report is done in about five weeks. DeLaughter will remain free on bond until then.

DeLaughter became well-known in the 1990s after he helped prosecute Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 sniper shooting of Mississippi NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers. Actor Alec Baldwin portrayed DeLaughter in ‘‘Ghosts of Mississippi,’’ a film based on the trial.

DeLaughter looked straight ahead with his hands clasped in front of him during the hearing. He didn’t say anything, nor did he speak to reporters afterward. Some people in the courtroom cried after the plea and said, ‘‘It’s a sad day.’’

‘‘He made Mississippi civil rights history. I hope that’s not lost on anybody,’’ DeLaughter’s attorney, Thomas Durkin, said afterward. ‘‘Even heroes make mistakes.’’

Gov. Haley Barbour will appoint someone to serve out the rest of DeLaughter’s term, which ends Dec. 31, 2010. DeLaughter had previously resigned.

DeLaughter was accused of giving an unfair advantage to former attorney Richard ‘‘Dickie’’ Scruggs in a dispute over millions of dollars in fees from asbestos lawsuits.

Scruggs and William Roberts Wilson Jr., of Tuscaloosa, Ala., once worked together suing asbestos companies.

Wilson had claimed Scruggs cheated him out of money and used it to fund landmark anti-tobacco lawsuits in the 1990s, in which Scruggs reportedly earned as much as $848 million. Wilson sued for a share of the money.

Wilson’s suit came before DeLaughter’s court.

Charlie Merkel of Clarksdale, the attorney representing Wilson, said he hopes the case can now get back on track ‘‘immediately.’’

Prosecutors have said the promise of a federal judgeship drew DeLaughter into the scheme.

Scruggs and another attorney, Joey Langston, of Booneville, conscripted former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters, one of DeLaughter’s former bosses, to contact the judge. Peters told DeLaughter that Scruggs’ brother-in-law, former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, would help him get appointed to the federal bench if he ruled in Scruggs’ favor.

Lott was not charged in the case. The former U.S. senator called DeLaughter and several other people about an open seat on the federal bench, but recommended someone else for the job, his former chief of staff has said.

U.S. Attorney Jim Greenlee said the practices of DeLaughter and others charged in the scandal amounted to ‘‘malignant behavior.’’

‘‘We’re glad to be through with this part — the Scruggs-DeLaughter saga. … Our trust in the judiciary is based on the impartially of our judges,’’ Greenlee said. ‘‘It’s extremely important to understand and realize what it means when something challenges that.’’

DeLaughter admitted he lied when he told the FBI agent he ‘‘never spoke to Ed Peters regarding’’ issues in Wilson’s lawsuit. Prosecutors had said the judge did discuss the case on numerous occasions and knew Peters was acting on behalf of Scruggs.

But Durkin said prosecutors included information in the statement of facts that went beyond the charge that DeLaughter was pleading guilty to in court. He said that DeLaughter’s only ‘‘tragic flaw’’ was talking with Peters, who was not charged in the case.

Peters has given up his law license and investigators seized $425,000 from him, which is all they say is left of the $1 million from Scruggs after taxes and stock market losses.

DeLaughter had been suspended with pay since March 2008. His judicial salary is more than $104,000.

DeLaughter becomes the latest casualty of a series of cases that have left Mississippi’s court system mired in scandal.

Langston pleaded guilty last year to conspiring with Scruggs to illegally influence DeLaughter. He’s serving a three-year sentence.

When he pleaded guilty in February to mail fraud in the DeLaughter case, Scruggs was already serving a five-year sentence for conspiring to bribe a state judge in a legal fee dispute over Hurricane Katrina lawsuits. An additional two years was added to his sentence.

His associates — Langston, New Albany attorney Timothy Balducci and former Mississippi Auditor Steve Patterson — took plea bargains in the case and pointed investigators to other alleged crimes, including the asbestos case in Hinds County.

Paul Minor, another once-prominent attorney, was convicted in 2007 of bribing two judges in coastal Harrison County. He’s serving an 11-year sentence.