Rod Blagojevich's Attorneys File Appeal

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 16, 2013 3:00PM

Photo credit: Frank Polich/Getty images

Attorneys for imprisoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich filed an appeal of his corruption conviction late Monday, claiming U.S. District Judge James Zagel’s evidentiary rulings unfairly favored prosecutors and that Zagel barred defense attorneys from introducing key evidence that could have helped acquit Blagojevich.

The appeal was filed with the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, moments before a midnight deadline, and restates the same arguments Blagojevich’s legal team made during his 2011 retrial. Readers may remember Blagojevich claimed he was merely making a “political deal” with no benefit to himself when he attempted to name the successor to the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama’s election to the Presidency in exchange for an Obama administration job; that he never intended to act on an offer by former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. to appoint him to the Senate in exchange for campaign cash; that his convictions should be overturned because “the government failed to prove an explicit quid pro quo agreement, as required under the law.”

The key to the appeal, as was Blagojevich’s defense, was that Zagel refused to allow evidence that would have proven Blagojevich acted with a “good faith belief that his actions comported with the law.”

Blagojevich, now known in the federal prison system as inmate 40892-424, was convicted in June 2011 on 17 counts of corruption and sentenced to 14 years in prison, which he began serving at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Englewood in Littleton, Colorado, last March, smiling, high-fiving and posing for photos with people all the way to the prison gates.

Read the full appeal filing here.