Wednesday - August 18, 2010

Past The Tipping Point

After three weeks of respectful but increasingly tense deliberations, 11 jurors were ready to convict Rod Blagojevich of what prosecutors called a “political corruption crime spree” that would have sent yet another former Illinois governor to prison.

Not close enough. On vote after vote, the jury kept coming up one juror short — a lone holdout who wouldn’t budge and would agree only that Blagojevich lied to the FBI. “The person just did not see the evidence that everyone else did,” said juror Stephen Wlodek.

The guilty verdict on the least serious of the 24 counts against him, and mistrial on all the rest, led Blagojevich to taunt prosecutors in the courthouse lobby. More than a year after federal prosecutors accused him of crimes that would make Abraham Lincoln “roll over in his grave,” the disgraced politician bragged about essentially fighting them to a draw.

The outcome that left the Blagojevich brothers so pleased came as a disappointment to three jurors who spoke to The Associated Press late Tuesday, hours after the exhausted panel departed the courthouse. They said further deliberations would not have mattered — a second unanimous decision on a charge of attempted extortion evaporated shortly before the verdicts were to be read.

“I think in the end, based on what happened today, the people of the state just did not have justice served,” said Wlodek, 36, a human resources manager whose job in the jury room was playing the FBI wiretap tapes in which Blagojevich, often in the most profane language imaginable, discussed his alleged schemes.

Federal prosecutors — no doubt stung by the jury’s inability to reach a decision on all but the single charge — were as emphatic as the former governor. When U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel said Tuesday he would give prosecutors time to decide whether to take Blagojevich to court again, prosecutor Reid Schar spoke up instantly: “It is absolutely our intention to retry this.”

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald later thanked the jury for its service but refused to comment on their decision, citing the need to prepare for Blagojevich’s second trial. Zagel set a hearing for Aug. 26 to decide manner and timing of the retrial, and a former federal prosecutor said the 11-1 split in favor of conviction on several counts bodes well for the government.

“At the end of the day it signals very strongly they will get a conviction next time,” said Joel Levin, who helped win a conviction of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan in 2006. “It sounds like the case was lost in jury selection.”

Lost in jury selection? Hardly. Examine the political connections, finances and employment situation of that juror, his family and his in-laws and I can almost guarantee you will turn over a rock with something dirty beneath it.

The OJ trial was lost because some seriously stupid people on the jury could not understand that “beyond reasonable doubt” did not mean the same as “125% obvious guilt”. But in this case is was obvious. And 11 of the jury could see that, on each and every single charge. By the most direct and damning evidence ever. But not 1. No matter what. This stinks to high heaven. That juror was bought, one way or another.

Come on. They had Blagovich cold. They had him on tape blatantly trying to sell the Senate seat, trying to negotiate a price, trying to leverage it for his own personal gain. Dead to rights. Guilty. And the whole bunch of the rest of them too, from Jesse Jr on up.

One set of rules for us peasants slogging through the mud. One set of rules - or at least results, because rules themselves don’t apply to the far left - for our masters in government.

Don’t forget that this case was run by special witchfinder prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, the guy who managed to convict Scooter Libby for perjury, because he was the only guy in the Bush/Cheney/Rove circle he could stick a pin in, for the Valerie Plame nonsense. Even though Fitzgerald knew from the very beginning that turncoat Richard Armitrage was the one who outted her. So obviously he has magic powers, and is able to find a crime were none exists, and force a conviction as well. And the best he could do here, with miles worth of tape and hours and hours of unimpeachable evidence, was the same pissant charge against Blago that he managed, after 3 solid years of investigation, to stick on Libby? This is madness. Madness! Madness!!

I have no faith in our government. None. Not in its effectiveness, its honesty, its intent. Nothing. Thieves, crooks, liars, incompetents. Cronyism and corruption, and the ability to take care of its own, no matter what crime they’ve committed. I think it’s time for a seriously bloody revolution. 

Posted by Drew458     on 08/18/2010 at 01:22 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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