Alexandria Johnson
Editor-in-Chief

With four of the last eight governors
serving jail time, the state of Illinois has
grown accustomed to corruption littering
its political offices. Last month, former Il-
linois governor Rod Blagojevich entered
court facing 24 counts of various forms
of government corruption and deceit, yet
he left court with a mere one conviction
for lying to federal officials.
With a hung jury on the other 23
cases, the jury’s deliberation was a frus-
trating and heated one. Ralph Schindler
of Arlington Heights was selected to be
on the jury and experienced the tension
of the case firsthand.
“I knew when I was sent the jury duty
selection that it was for the Blagojevich
case,” Schindler said. “I was real excited.
If selected, I thought it’d be interesting.
Be careful what you wish for. It was a
very complicated trial.”
Spending the first two days of the 17-
week process reviewing paperwork for
Blagojevich’s 24 counts, Schindler and
his fellow jurors were forced to review
time consuming documents, numbering
over 100 pages in length.
“By then we had to go through the
testimonials. Some people were one way
and others went another,” Schindler said.
“It’s 12 people sitting around all day try-
ing to persuade their view is correct. It
was very tedious.”
While dissatisfied with the verdict,
Schindler attributes Blagojevich’s guilt
on only one count regarding lying to fed-
eral agents to a strong prosecution and
one juror who was hesitant on commit-
ting to any charges.
“The prosecution built up its case,”
Schindler said.
Given the intensity of the case and the
lengthy discussions for each case, some
jurors felt the case was not completely
hashed out.
“We weren’t really done,” Schindler
said.
United States Attorney for the North-
ern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald
played a large role in initially bringing
charges against Blagojevich. Due to the
fact that the United States Attorney Of-
fice is unable to comment on pending cas-
es, a spokesperson emphasized the job of
the attorneys to gather more undeniable
evidence.
“In general, in criminal cases the U.S.
Attorney Office is a government prosecu-
tion that brings charges against govern-
ment officials and finds evidence beyond
reasonable doubt,” the U.S. Attorney Of-
fice spokesperson said.
As Blagojevich awaits retrial, the face
of Illinois politics has changed, putting
more government officials under scru-
tiny.
“It was an illuminating insight into Il-
linois politics. It was eye opening to what
goes on behind the scenes,” Schindler
said.