Blago Guilty on 1 of 24 counts

[Eddie]

CNN is reporting Blago was found guilty on one count of making a false statement to the FBI, hung jury on the other 23 counts. Looking for a link.

Got it:

Blagojevich found guilty on 1 charge; jury hung on 23 - CNN.com

 

[mrjarrell]

Here ya go.

The Fix - Rod Blagojevich convicted of lying to investigators

 

[Prometheus]

As much as I want to see blago fry, lying to federal investigators is a BS crime.

Unfrigginbelievable that they convict on something like that and yet hang on the other 23 counts.

Perfect illustration of the injustice system.

 

[Leadeye]

The Chicago way.

 

[jbombelli]

That's Chicago for you. I've been saying for years that place is home of the most corrupt political machine in the country. The corruption goes through the police department, the aldermen, code enforcement, utilities, the mayor's office, the legislature, the governor's office, everywhere. I won't go so far as to say Chicago rivals Mexico in corruption, but they've definitely made their mark.

 

[mrjarrell]

Well, it was a jury of his peers that found him guilty of one count and hung on the other counts. Guess the prosecution just couldn't make their case.

 

[Vasili]

Hung jury is a mistrial. Re-do.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Note that the only count that came back guilty was unrecorded.

Class, what have we learned? Right, never, ever, ever talk to the police.

 

[E5RANGER375]

Class, what have we learned? Right, never, ever, ever talk to the police.

AMEN!!!!
AMEN!!!!
AMEN!!!!

I knew the prosecution was screwed when them and the media were making such a HUGE deal about him dropping F-bombs. Who cares. Just because the guy can curse doesnt mean hes guilty! I use to use the F word every sentence twice. Now I've got it down to once, every third sentence

 

[Phil502]

There was one lone juror who voted not guilty on the other 23 counts, I highly suspect that there was jury tampering or some nutcase juror is involved.

 

[Clay]

hung jury because of one woman right from the get go. Sad.

 

[MilitaryArms]

Well, it was a jury of his peers that found him guilty of one count and hung on the other counts. Guess the prosecution just couldn't make their case.

Which hopefully will be over turned.

I don't like Blago at all, but his conviction on lying to the FBI is bogus.

There's no evidence that he in fact lied other than the testimony of the FBI agents. No recordings. No video. No transcripts. Nothing. I'm sorry, but this prosecutor is over zealous should himself be investigated.

The Justice Department as a whole is in need of an investigation actually. Look at the BS regarding Tom Delay. 6 years and two Presidents and how many millions spent? What did they find? NOTHING. Why wasn't this witch hunt called off years ago?

Blogo was a typical Chicago politician. He's out of office. The jury didn't hang on just one member for all 23 charges for which they couldn't come to agreement. She was the only juror who held out on the conspiracy charges, but on the other charges there were several other jurors that wouldn't vote to convict.

The prosecutions case was weak. Fitzgerald was over zealous and pounced on Blogo before he had his "smoking gun". We can debate endlessly if this was to protect the White House or not... who knows. But he screwed up, he botched his case, now move on. Stop wasting tax payer money because you're inept. Blogo is bankrupt, out of office and disgraced. He's no threat to anyone anymore.

 

[MilitaryArms]

There was one lone juror who voted not guilty on the other 23 counts, I highly suspect that there was jury tampering or some nutcase juror is involved.

Not true apparently.

WLS-AM 890

Read the second paragraph. Juror Sarnello said that on the other counts the jury was more divided. The lone juror only held up the conviction on the charges related to the selling of the Senate seat. So it's not really that cut and dry.

 

[Phil502]

Not true apparently.

WLS-AM 890

Read the second paragraph. Juror Sarnello said that on the other counts the jury was more divided. The lone juror only held up the conviction on the charges related to the selling of the Senate seat. So it's not really that cut and dry.

Looks like you're right instead of 23 it's 15. Initial news was 23. 8 off so what, the trial was mainly about the sale of the seat.

 

[MilitaryArms]

Looks like you're right instead of 23 it's 15. Initial news was 23. 8 off so what, the trial was mainly about the sale of the seat.

So what? So the prosecutions case was weak. You do realize the defense didn't even call a single witness, right?

I listened to the interview live with Sarnello on the radio and he said the prosecutions case was confusing and poorly structured. They (the jury) had to put together their own time-line of events and dig into evidence themselves. They even had unanimity on two of the convictions on the Friday before the final announcement, but when they came back the following week they were again split on one of the two counts. That's how weak the case was.

Fitzgerald screwed the pooch. He arrested Blogo too early so all they have is the anticipation of a crime, he actually committed no crime. Had they let him actually sell the seat then we wouldn't be having this conversation and Blogo would be in prison.

Some of you guys are so jaded by your partisan perspective on life that you can't even be objective. If we were talking about Scooter Libby, you would be screaming "this is BS" (which it was), but when it's a Democrat you want to toss all objectivity and fairness out the window and you adopt the "get'em" mentality.

Blogo was a corrupt POS and I'm glad he's out of office. But I'm not willing to compromise fair application of justice just because he has a D in front of his name. We have to remain fair and objective in our pursuit of justice because if someone, say like yourself, is falsely accused of a crime (think Tom Delay) we don't allow an over zealous prosecutor to abuse his position and railroad you.

 

[Phil502]

So what? So the prosecutions case was weak. You do realize the defense didn't even call a single witness, right?

I listened to the interview live with Sarnello on the radio and he said the prosecutions case was confusing and poorly structured. They (the jury) had to put together their own time-line of events and dig into evidence themselves. They even had unanimity on two of the convictions on the Friday before the final announcement, but when they came back the following week they were again split on one of the two counts. That's how weak the case was.

Fitzgerald screwed the pooch. He arrested Blogo too early so all they have is the anticipation of a crime, he actually committed no crime. Had they let him actually sell the seat then we wouldn't be having this conversation and Blogo would be in prison.

Some of you guys are so jaded by your partisan perspective on life that you can't even be objective. If we were talking about Scooter Libby, you would be screaming "this is BS" (which it was), but when it's a Democrat you want to toss all objectivity and fairness out the window and you adopt the "get'em" mentality.

Blogo was a corrupt POS and I'm glad he's out of office. But I'm not willing to compromise fair application of justice just because he has a D in front of his name. We have to remain fair and objective in our pursuit of justice because if someone, say like yourself, is falsely accused of a crime (think Tom Delay) we don't allow an over zealous prosecutor to abuse his position and railroad you.

The case was weak in the eyes of Sarnello, a juror, is he a law student now? That's his opinion, okay, fair enough. He still voted guilty on the "weak" case. I agree Blago is a POS, I think if one juror was different the ending is most likely, bye bye Blago. D or no D I think he did it. Thats my opinion, why try to say I am prejudiced against D's, you don't know me and you sat as close to the trial as I did, pretty far away.

 

[MilitaryArms]

The case was weak in the eyes of Sarnello, a juror, is he a law student now? That's his opinion, okay, fair enough. He still voted guilty on the "weak" case. I agree Blago is a POS, I think if one juror was different the ending is most likely, bye bye Blago. D or no D I think he did it. Thats my opinion, why try to say I am prejudiced against D's, you don't know me and you sat as close to the trial as I did, pretty far away.

I sat as close as the daily media reports, and it's the opinion of seasoned court observers that the prosecution was weak. Just because you may be tuning in at the end doesn't mean you paid as much attention as I did (apparently).

The fact that the prosecutions case was weak is also evidenced by the verdict. It took them two weeks to get two unanimous decisions only to flip one of those back to undecided and 23 counts of "we can't agree". 15 of those were held up by a single juror and 8 were held up by several more.

Usually such federal cases are fairly difficult to escape from without convictions. The fact Blogo did is a testament to the weak nature of the prosecutions case, regardless if you want to acknowledge this fact or not.

 

[Phil502]

I sat as close as the daily media reports, and it's the opinion of seasoned court observers that the prosecution was weak. Just because you may be tuning in at the end doesn't mean you paid as much attention as I did (apparently).

The fact that the prosecutions case was weak is also evidenced by the verdict. It took them two weeks to get two unanimous decisions only to flip one of those back to undecided and 23 counts of "we can't agree". 15 of those were held up by a single juror and 8 were held up by several more.

Usually such federal cases are fairly difficult to escape from without convictions. The fact Blogo did is a testament to the weak nature of the prosecutions case, regardless if you want to acknowledge this fact or not.

Some experts say that there a lot of evidence, that it was a complex case and it was difficult to present it. Some of the jurors said that the lone juror had a preconcieved idea that the Blago was innocent and that they spent a lot of time trying to convince her of the evidence, they even remarked that she seemed to have sat in a different trial then them.

Intent is harder to prove then hard action, I could talk to my friends and colleques and not go into full detail, we know each other and get the drift easily.

I guess we will see what happens at retrial.