7th Circuit nixes 5 counts in conviction of ex-Illinois Gov. Blagojevich, calls for new sentence
Faced with an 18-count conviction and what it described as overwhelming evidence of a former Illinois governor’s guilt in a political corruption case, a federal appeals court Tuesday nonetheless nixed five counts and called for a resentencing.
The impeached former governor, Rod Blagojevich, “now asks us to hold that the evidence is insufficient to convict him on any count. The argument is frivolous,” Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote in a unanimous opinion by the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “The evidence, much of it from Blagojevich’s own mouth, is overwhelming.”
However, jury instructions concerning some of the most-publicized allegations in the case—that Blagojevich, a Democrat, sought to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama as he headed for the nation’s top government job—weren’t specific enough to allow those convictions to stand, the opinion continues.
“A jury could have found that Blagojevich asked the President-elect for a private-sector job, or for funds that he could control, but the instructions permitted the jury to convict even if it found that his only request of Sen. Obama was for a position in the Cabinet. The instructions treated all proposals alike. We conclude, however, that they are legally different: a proposal to trade one public act for another, a form of logrolling, is fundamentally unlike the swap of an official act for a private payment.
“Because the instructions do not enable us to be sure that the jury found that Blagojevich offered to trade the appointment for a private salary after leaving the governorship, these convictions cannot stand.”
Prosecutors can now appeal, retry Blagojevich on the five counts on which the 7th Circuit reversed his conviction or simply leave the former governor’s case as it now is, according to the Associated Press and the Chicago Tribune (reg. req.).
While prison is where Blagojevich belongs, he should be resentenced, the 7th Circuit said, even if on remand the trial court decides to keep his sentence the same.
“It is not possible to call the 168 months unlawfully high for Blagojevich’s crimes, but the district judge should consider on remand whether it is the most appropriate sentence,” Easterbrook wrote.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Impeached Ex-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich Gets 14 Years in Federal Corruption Case”
ABAJournal.com: “Blagojevich appeal considers political horse-trading and criminality”
