U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court Turns Down Appeal of Ex-Illinois Governor
Posted May 27, 2008, 09:44 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who was convicted of racketeering and fraud.
Ryan had argued U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer committed error when she continued the trial after dismissing two jurors for failing to disclose criminal records, the Associated Press reports.
Ryan began serving a 6½ year sentence in November when Justice John Paul Stevens rejected an emergency bail application, Reuters reports.
A report by the Chicago Tribune during jury deliberations revealed that two jurors had concealed their arrest records during jury selection. Pallmeyer replaced the jurors with alternates and instructed them to start deliberating again from scratch.
The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Ryan and the full court refused to grant an en banc rehearing. Three dissenters from the en banc decision said "a cascade of errors" during Ryan’s six-month trial had turned the proceeding "into a travesty."
A dissenter in the 7th Circuit’s original 2-1 decision against Ryan said Pallmeyer should have declared a mistrial.
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