ATLANTA (CNN) -- A federal jury in Montgomery convicted ex-HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy and former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman of bribery charges Thursday in a corruption case stemming from Siegelman's term in office.

Siegelman, 60, said he was "absolutely shocked" by the verdict and said he would appeal.

Former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy

"I think it's a classic example of failure to communicate with the jury," he told reporters.

Siegelman was convicted of bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud and obstruction of justice, but acquitted of numerous other counts, including racketeering and extortion. His former chief of staff, Paul Hamrick, and former Transportation Director Mack Roberts were acquitted in the same case.

Meanwhile, Scrushy - who was acquitted in a massive corporate fraud case in 2005 - was convicted of all six bribery counts against him.

"This is not right, what has happened here. We're very hurt," he said.

Siegelman was governor of Alabama from 1999 to 2003, and attempted to make a comeback this year. That bid failed earlier this month in Alabama's Democratic primary, when Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley won the party's gubernatorial nomination.

Prosecutors said Siegelman established a criminal enterprise in which official actions were exchanged for hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes from business interests, demanding payments of as much as $250,000 from individuals under the threat of harming their businesses.

Scrushy, then head of Birmingham-based HealthSouth, was accused of making two payments to Siegelman totaling $500,000 in exchange for an appointment to a medical review board.

"There was no evidence to tie me to any of these charges," he said after the verdict. His lawyer, Art Leach, said he was confident the verdicts would be thrown out on appeal.

"We are absolutely satisfied that Richard Scrushy is not guilty of the offenses that he was convicted of today," Leach said.

Siegelman said Scrushy contributed to a fund he set up to finance his unsuccessful effort to establish a state lottery in 1999 and denied the appointment was related.

"If I'm really guilty of this, then every other person in public office better look out, because everybody's raising money and putting people on boards and commissions," he said. "President Bush took money from several of his cabinet members and made them cabinet members. We have judges who have been appointed to the federal benches who have sent money to President Bush before their appointment. This is a very slippery slope on the basis of the First Amendment."

Siegelman's defense attorney, David McDonald, vowed to appeal.

"These claims will not uphold on appeal," he said. "We had a wonderful jury ... the problem is, the claims brought before them were not crimes."

Three other people pleaded guilty to public corruption in connection with the investigation, including businessman Clayton "Lanny" Young; Nick Bailey, a former state official; and William Curtis Kirsch, an architect.

In 2004, Siegelman was charged, along with Hamrick, with conspiracy and health-care fraud for allegedly scheming to rig the bidding process for Medicaid contracts. Those charges were tossed out by a federal judge at the start of their trial.

Roberts and Hamrick expressed relief after the verdicts were read.

"I think the jury, at the end of the day, had the same question in their minds that I've had in my mind and I think my wife has had in her mind from day one," Hamrick said. "At the risk of offending my mother, that question is: 'What the hell am I doing here?' "

Last June, after six weeks of deliberation, a federal jury in Birmingham surprised courtroom observers - and shocked prosecutors - by acquitting Scrushy on 36 counts related to a $2.7 billion accounting fraud at HealthSouth, the hospital chain he founded. He was the first chief executive charged under the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley act, a corporate reform measure passed by Congress after a wave of corporate scandals.

Prosecutors said Scrushy masterminded the scheme, but his lawyers maintained other HealthSouth executives committed the fraud behind his back.

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