Jury in Blagojevich Retrial Deliberating

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 10, 2011 1:53PM

For the second time in less than a year, the fate of Rod Blagojevich is in the hands of twelve anonymous jurors. The Blagojevich retrial is now deliberations. Fox Chicago's Larry Yellen has a nice rundown of the closing arguments and rebuttal.

The prosecution stayed on message, trying to paint Blagojevich as a man on a mad dash for cash who violated the public trust for his own personal gain. The defense countered that while some may believe what Blagojevich did was sleazy, it's wasn't illegal.

Defense lawyer Aaron Goldstein also praised Blagojevich's taking the stand in his defense as "courageous." "They want you to believe his talk is a crime. It’s not," Goldstein said. Goldstein also implored the jury to ply every last second of the wiretap tapes at their disposal.

At one point, Patti Blagojevich burst into tears as Goldstein pointed the jury in the direction of her husband. Prosecutor Reid Schar reminded the jury that, in his opinion, Blagojevich wasn't merely talking loud and saying nothing. Schar also brought up the continued admonishments of Blagojevich by Judge James Zagel during his testimony.

“He’s got four lawyers over there and they couldn’t stop him. He rolled right over them,” Schar said. Schar said Blagojevich even ignored the judge, who struck testimony about a sick cousin. The former governor said it again later so the jury would hear it.

“The rules appear to not apply to him … This isn’t a game,” an emphatic Schar said, throwing his hands in the air. “There are rules.”