Blagojevich Appears At Chicago Comic Con 171
theodp writes "Earlier this week, a federal jury convicted Former Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich of lying to the FBI and deadlocked on 23 other charges. Still, that didn't stop Blago from connecting with his 'loyal supporters' Saturday at the Chicago Comic Con, where the ex-Gov charged $80 for each photo taken with him and $50 for autographs. He even hob-knobbed with celebrities like Adam West and Richard Roundtree. 'I met Batman. I met Shaft, and I know something about getting the shaft,' Blagojevich said."
Re:Getting the shaft? (Score:3, Informative)
He's guilty as sin and everyone but him seems to know it.
It appears based on the jury results that there is at least one other person in the country who wasn't convinced. In spite of what you may believe to be the facts of the case, US law does say that for these charges a unanimous jury verdict is required to convict the accused.
Re:Corruption threatens "soul and fabric" of U.S. (Score:5, Informative)
He was not found not guilty. He was convicted on one of 24 counts and the jury deadlocked on 23 counts. A deadlocked jury doesn't count as an acquittal or a conviction, and he can (and most likely will) be retried on 23 counts.
Re:Getting the shaft? (Score:5, Informative)
Welcome to the land of "jury selection [google.com]."
Essentially, each side only gets so many challenges. They can try to challenge for cause, but they get only a few "peremptory challenges" (removing someone they are worried about without saying why). Further, the peremptory challenges are restricted because you have to be extremely careful [findlaw.com] about striking certain people lest someone scream about "racism", "sexism", "ageism", etc.
Most likely, since the woman was not a "direct employee of Blagojevich", the judge ruled that she couldn't be struck from the jury with cause even though she was one of his former campaign workers, since campaign work is often a paid position and they could argue that it was "just a job." That would have meant that it would burn a peremptory challenge to get her removed, and there were probably some people the prosecution wanted on the jury even less that they'd already used all their peremptories on.
The other thing that potential tampered/"ringer" jurors trying to slip into a case like this will pull is trying to put themselves at the back of the line. Remember, voir dire works in sequential order, either one juror at a time or banks-of-twelve at a time. If the prosecution had already used up all their peremptories by the time she came up in the process, they were stuck with her.
Re:Getting the shaft? (Score:3, Informative)
If the prosecution had already used up all their peremptories by the time she came up in the process, they were stuck with her.
Really? When I was called for jury service, the layers declared their peremptories after they interviewed all the potential jurors.
Re:Is a party switch coming up? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Getting the shaft? (Score:3, Informative)
On a jury, the other jurors can go to the judge and say, "This woman isn't considering the evidence and isn't following the law." It takes a lot more chutzpah to do something that brazen.
Actually, short of getting into a major fistfight, it's very rare and difficult [google.com] for anyone to get tossed off of a jury, even if there is an alternate still available. Most of the time it requires someone getting physically violent. Only in the most rare circumstances - a juror sits in the corner, states something that should have been enough to have them removed before trial began but which they failed to bring up when the Judge asked the standard "is there any other reason you feel you cannot render a fair verdict?" - can a judge remove the juror otherwise. So as odd as it sounds, as long as the juror who was deliberately there to rig the verdict for Blagojevich kept talking, there's nothing that could be done once she'd managed to slip into the jury.
Once you are down to 12 jurors, the judge doesn't have room to toss anyone - should a juror need to be removed (major illness req. hospitalization, physical violence, etc) the only other option is to declare a mistrial without reaching any verdict at all.
Re:Getting the shaft? (Score:3, Informative)
Really? When I was called for jury service, the layers declared their peremptories after they interviewed all the potential jurors.
Jury selection varies by state and probably depends a little on the resource constraints of the court as well. In California, I was on a jury for a murder case (the actual sentence could have scaled from self-defense/no crime through involuntary and voluntary manslaughter up to murder one without death penalty) and we were selected in batches of six.
Re:Is a party switch coming up? (Score:3, Informative)
The Onion has a lot more accurate information.
Re:Is a party switch coming up? (Score:3, Informative)
Excellent point, I offer my apologies to The Onion for comparing them to fox news.