Defense Lawyer Tells Jurors Blagojevich Is ‘Not the Sharpest Knife in the Drawer’
Defense lawyer Sam Adam Jr. told jurors on Tuesday that former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich may not be “the sharpest knife in the drawer,” but he’s not corrupt.
Jurors begin deliberations in the case today, the New York Times reports. Yesterday, Adam offered a dramatic closing argument that was “peppered with whispers, shouts, gasps, sarcasm and slang—an effort so full of drama that the presiding judge likened it to a show,” the Times says.
Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass writes that the closing was “a great show, Sam Jr.’s voice booming, then dropping and zooming up again, then a whisper.” Kass has nicknamed Blagojevich “Governor Dead Meat” and suggested the moniker will prove true.
According to the Times, Adam “offered a litany of explanations for why Mr. Blagojevich should be acquitted and sent home. Among them were these: Mr. Blagojevich was not trying to make the crooked deals the government has accused him of dreaming up. He did not manage to complete the deals. He had not gotten rich in the least. His trusted advisers had told him he was not doing anything wrong. He did not pick good advisers. He was not too sharp.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Reid Schar used sarcasm in responding to defense arguments.
“There’s a conspiracy of liars,” Schar said sarcastically. “Everyone’s lying to frame defendant Blagojevich. It’s one of the great frame-ups of all time. What’s amazing about this massive conspiracy is that not only are these people lying, they somehow managed to get Blagojevich on all those tapes you heard, to frame himself.”
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown notes that Blagojevich fans gather each afternoon outside the courthouse. He suspects that Adam hopes there are one or two similarly minded people on the jury. Adam’s “scattershot closing argument,” he writes, “seemed more intent on reaching the wavelength of a potential stray holdout juror than to win over an entire jury.”
