Jailed Ex-Gov. Blagojevich Is Waiting For Obama To Decide On Commutation Request

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Dec 26, 2016 5:14PM

Imprisoned for corruption four years ago, Illinois' ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich is now hoping President Barack Obama will commute his 14-year prison sentence.

Blagojevich petitioned for the presidential commutation last week, according to the Justice Department, and is awaiting a response from Obama's administration. It is typical for a president to offer pardons to and commute the sentences of federal prisoners during his time in office, and particularly at the end of his final term. In an historic announcement last week, Obama issued 78 pardons and commuted 153 prison sentences—the most to ever be made in a single day.

Blagojevich's legal team has been working to get the disgraced former governor out of prison since he was sentenced on a corruption conviction in 2011. Blagojevich was convicted of trying to sell Obama's U.S. Senate seat when the former Illinois Senator was elected president in 2008. Earlier this year he requested his sentence be reduced from 14 years to five, but a judge denied that request at an August re-sentencing hearing, even though an appeals court had just thrown out some of Blagojevich's convictions.

It is noteworthy that Blagojevich did not ask for a presidential pardon outright—rather, a presidential commutation would involve the president reducing Blagojevich's sentence, but not eliminating it entirely or eliminating the conviction itself.

Earlier this week Blagojevich's legal team petitioned a U.S. appeals court for another sentencing hearing, on the grounds that he's been a model prisoner and should not be in prison for anothe reight years, according to the Tribune. Blagojevich is at a low=security federal prison in Colorado, where he formed a band with fellow inmates called the Jailhouse Rockers.