Posted on 08/18/2010 7:44:15 AM PDT by Brittany Pounders
Share We’ve all been wondering how in the world Blago could have escaped the other 23 counts he was charged with. Today, it has been revealed it was an 11:1 vote and the holdout was a woman who could not be swayed. Chicago Local News writes:
“Overall, I’d say everyone was pretty respectful. In the beginning, it was a little more heated, a lot more emotions, voting was defensive. And then we checked ourselves and took emotion out of it,” said Sarnello. “To me, it was pretty clear where we were gonna end about the third day.”
They ended in mistrial on 23 counts.
Despite the division, according to Sarnello, the 12 came very close to convicting Blagojevich on the biggest alleged scheme: trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.
It was 11 to 1. The holdout was a woman.
“She just looked at things a different way,” said Sarnello.
He says at times jurors were getting hostile towards the holdout juror, but then they realized that she would shut down if she felt attacked.
“We’d listen to a tape and people would be like, ‘wow, that just confirms that he’s guilty’ and she’d say, ‘that just confirms to me that he’s not guilty,’” said Sarnello.
He wouldn’t identify the holdout juror because she’s been through enough.
The accusations are already beginning to fly… was she paid off, threatened, politically motivated, or truly convinced-even in the face of all of the evidence- that he was innocent? I’m sure a lot more on this will be revealed in the days to come, including the woman’s name.
can anyone hear the ... Ching-Ching!?... there WAS a payday...
Poor jury screening?
Good for her. I’m happy to see this stay in the news with another trial.
Hey, she thinks he’s cute!
Can’t members of the jury address the situation to the judge when a jury member is an idiot?
I know she was probably picked BECAUSE she was an idiot, but still...
I would be for hiring full-time jurors- you just apply and pass an IQ test and then you serve for a year or 2 - maybe even make it an elected position
Stop all this ‘jury selection’ nonsense. You get whoever is picked from a hat.
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
I presume her background and bank account will be scrutinzied.
Some jurors, including the foreman IIRC, felt Blagojevich was guilty on all 24 counts. THAT is TRULY frightening given Fitzie’s weak case!
You don’t really think that do you?
Can we call you a pedophile if we fail to convince an orangutan otherwise?
“She just looked at things a different way,” said Sarnello.
He says at times jurors were getting hostile towards the holdout juror, but then they realized that she would shut down if she felt attacked.
“We’d listen to a tape and people would be like, ‘wow, that just confirms that he’s guilty’ and she’d say, ‘that just confirms to me that he’s not guilty,’” said Sarnello
Our system may indeed be set up for people to foul it because it does rely on honor and honesty. This is why the prosectution gets another shot at it.
One juror reported they had been all over the place on other testimony as well...as I suspected it would just be the one “lying to the feds” allegation/conviction. The same with Martha, Libby and a host of others—spend millions, so have to convict on something—use to be with the Mafioso, IRS issues, but now our leaders in Washington commit those crimes, so tip toe around bringing up that old gottcha scenario!!!
Did The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve lie to the American public when they said that the first nine banks to receive government bailout funds were healthy?
Did Countrywide Bribe Public Officials?
Blago was small fry in comparison.
The problem with juries is that they consist of people who are too stupid to get out of jury duty.
The one who did serve on a jury (a police corruption case) ended up jury foreman and just kept things moving along in the deliberations, provided some measure of organization and discipline, and got the verdicts pretty much settled quickly. I'm sure the defense lawyers on that one had mixed feelings about allowing him to serve (got some acquittals, but not all). The case would have made local headlines except they brought in their verdicts the morning of 9/11/2001, and the news had other things to cover that day.
I always said that I want to be tried by a jury of my peers-
Morons!
Jury tampering I’ll bet. This is Chicago. They’re good at it.
So we should just throw out a major protection against rogue prosecutors just because we do not agree with the politics of the accused? If Fitzgerald's case was so airtight, then why didn't Blago even have to put up a defense?
He reminds me of elliot spitzer.
A PAULY SHORE REFERENCE SHOULD NEVER BE USED ON FREE REPUBLIC. HE IS AN IDIOT.
Why couldn’t a juror be threatened or bought off on a high-profile trial?
All you need is the fear that your family will be killed.
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