Jury Finds Blagojevich Guilty of Corruption
Rod Blagojevich. It’s a name that will go down in Chicago political history as scandalous, especially after he was convicted Monday on a variety of corruption charges. He becomes the third Illinois governor to go down in legal flames.
Despite Blagojevich steadfastly and very publicly denying all the charges against him, including the allegation that he tried to sell then President-elect Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat, he now faces up to 300 years in prison.
Blagojevich’s book The Governor hit store shelves in September 2009. In it, he said his accusers are lying. After deliberating for 10 days, 12 jurors felt otherwise.
Jurors convicted the 54-year-old former Illinois governor on 17 of 20 counts, according to the Associated Press. He was acquitted of soliciting bribes in the alleged shakedown of a road-building executive. The AP reports the jury was deadlocked on two charges of attempted extortion.
“Patti and I, obviously, are very disappointed by the outcome,” the New York Times reported Blagojevich as telling reporters in the lobby of the courthouse alongside his wife. “I, frankly, am stunned. There is not much left to say other than we want to get home to our little girls and explain things to them.”
