UPDATE: JURY FINDS BLAGO GUILTY ON 17 COUNTS
Experts are now commenting on possible sentence for Blago, looks like he’ll be looking at about a decade behind bars.
The jury has convicted former Governor Soprano on 17 of the 20 counts against him. He was found not guilty on one count and they hung on two counts.
He was found guilty on all counts related to the alleged (or perhaps no longer alleged) effort to sell President Obama’s US Senate seat. Some of the charges he was found guilty could result in a sentence of 20 years in prison.
The jury hung on charges relating to efforts to shake down a business executive and a Congressman (none other than the current mayor of Chicago) while the not guilty charge related to efforts to shake down a businessman.
Sentencing will probably not take place for a while and there will likely be appeals, but eventually he will be going to prison for an extended stay. At this point he is not allowed to leave the area without permission from the court.
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A jury has reached a verdict on all but two counts in the corruption trial of former Governor Rod “Tony Soprano” Blagojevich. A reading of the verdict is expected around 2pm Central.
I’m not a criminal attorney but they have reached a verdict on 18 of the 20 counts. If they were trending to acquittal it seems more than likely that they would have done so on all 20, rather than acquit on 18 and hang on 2.
In addition they only deliberated for a week or so and again if they were headed to a not guilty verdict that would have probably happened more quickly. This seems more like a case of agreement on 18 charges and a one or two stand outs on conviction on the last two.
Indeed the last jury came one vote from convicting on all charges.
And then of course you have the completely non judicial point that he’s blatently guilty (purely an opinion, not a fact).
So my guess is Rod is going to be a guest of the state for some time.