The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Friday upheld the conviction of a Queens criminal defense attorney who was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for helping bribe a witness to lie in a murder trial.

The ruling, from a three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based appeals court, came in a consolidated appeal by John Scarpa Jr. and Scott Brettschneider, a fellow defense attorney who was convicted for his role in a plot to potentially reduce a client’s drug sentence by lying about his history of substance abuse.