Chicagoist's Top 11 for 2011: Rod Blagojevich is Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison

By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 22, 2011 5:30PM

If Rod Blagojevich were a smart man — and considering some of the decisions of him and his legal team, that's a specious notion — he'll take the time to truly savor his last Christmas as a free man.

He also may be wondering, as we have throughout his retrial, if the difference between conviction and acquittal could have been having Sam Adam, Jr. on his legal team. But then we remember the jurors in Blagojevich's first trial and their confusion about which acts related to which counts, how they led to Blago only being convicted on one count, and wonder if even Adam's penchant for filibustering would have been enough against the streamlined case prosecutors presented in the retrial.

The absent Adam was one reason the retrial lacked the pizzazz of Blagojevich, Round One. Another was a relatively subdued Blagojevich. Rod used every opportunity during the first trial to profess his innocence — "the truth will set us free" was a common aphorism he beat to death, along with quoting Rudyard Kipling's "If" out of context — but he spent much of the retrial trying to profess that innocence from the witness stand. It worked for his brother Robert. But Blagojevich,

Ultimately, the jury found that Blagojevich's inability to stop politicking couldn't overcome the evidence. But it was that 14-year sentence handed down by Judge James Zagel that gave the whole retrial process the spark that was lacking. After the sentence was announced, talk turned as much about whether Blagojevich's personality had as much to do with it as his crimes. Analysts, jurors and even Zagel seemed to agree that Blagojevich's apology and pleas for mercy during the sentencing hearing were too little, too late. Even with Zagel recommending Blagojevich to enter a rehab program that could knock a year off his sentence if he completes it, he's going to have a lot of years to stew.