Posted on 08/27/2010 4:59:07 AM PDT by paudio
CHICAGO (AP) - The juror who was the lone holdout on some counts at former Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich's political corruption trial has said she had a responsibility to follow her conscience and that she stands by her vote.
"I could never live with myself if I went along with the rest of the jury," JoAnn Chiakulas told the Chicago Tribune in her first media interview since the trial ended. "I didn't believe it was the correct vote for me."
She had an offer she couldn’t refuse.
“She says she found his recorded statements on the Senate vacancy to be so disorganized that it didn’t reach the level of a criminal conspiracy.”
Wow! So the argument of Blago’s lawyer that he was too stupid to commit this crime apparently worked on one juror...
*snip*
If anything, some jurors were so convinced of Blagojevich’s guilt that they refused to consider Chiakulas’ arguments for acquitting, Duvvuri said.
“JoAnn did her job. She did the right thing,” said Duvvuri, who voted to convict Blagojevich on some counts and acquit on others. “She voted how she saw the evidence.”
Still, the holdout label upsets Chiakulas and some other jurors because, they say, it wrongly suggests she was a Blagojevich apologist. To the contrary, she readily acknowledged the governor’s faults during deliberations and made it clear that she didn’t condone his behavior or leadership, Moore said.
“She admitted he talks too much, he sounds like an idiot sometimes,” Moore said. “She said, ‘But we’re not here to determine whether he talks like an idiot sometimes. That’s not what he’s on trial for.’”
~ ~ ~
Looks to me like she did her job, given the govt’s poor presentation, who thought dazzling the jury with hours of wild ‘talk’ would seal the deal. The govt didn’t prove its case. The retrial will be dramatically different .. hopefully ... with Levine, Jarrett and Emanuel and other major players (Tom Balanoff, SEIU) as witnesses.
There were many charges that mixed, nearly evenly split votes. I’m much more inclined to speculate on what ‘suggestions’ Judge Zagel and the govt received from ‘above’ and from the local Machine than assuming successful jury tampering.
Thanks STARWISE. Assuming he ever sees a prison term from the inside of the bars, it’ll be one of those posh tennis shorts and daquiri prisons.
In other news, the feds dropped their charges against Blago’s brother Robert.
The Feds should seek a change of venue. Move the trial to Federal court in Alabama...
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