JURORS were one vote shy of convicting Rod Blagojevich of the most explosive charge against him.
He was accused of trying to sell the US Senate seat vacated when Barack Obama became US President.
A woman on the jury did not believe the evidence clearly implicated the former Illinois governor, fellow juror Erik Sarnello, 21, said yesterday after the former Illinois governor was convicted on only one of 24 counts.
“She wanted clear-cut evidence, and not everything was clear-cut,” Mr Sarnello said.
Blagojevich, 53, the flamboyant politician turned reality TV star, vowed to appeal against his conviction for lying to FBI agents, while US prosecutors promised a new trial on the charges of racketeering, bribery, attempted extortion and wire fraud. Lying to the FBI carries a maximum five-year jail sentence.
The case involved Blagojevich’s alleged attempt to sell Mr Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder and gain a prestigious appointment for himself in 2008.
When Mr Obama resigned his Senate seat, the governor had the ability to name a successor until the next scheduled elections.
Blagojevich was arrested in December 2008 and gained instant notoriety after recordings circulated of him apparently calling the vacant seat “f . . king golden” and promising not to give it up for free.
After a two-month trial, in which he declined to take the stand, he emerged defiant. “The government threw everything but the kitchen sink at me and on every charge except for one they could not prove that I did anything wrong and that I did break any laws except for one nebulous charge from five years ago,” Blagojevich said.
When the jurors were discussing the secret tapes, those who thought he was guilty referred to recordings that supported their point of view, while those who thought he was not guilty cited other portions of the tapes. “And there’s nothing you can do about that,” Mr Sarnello said.
Mr Sarnello, who is studying criminal justice at the College of DuPage, said the prosecution’s case appeared scattered. “It confused people. They didn’t follow a timeline. They jumped around,” he said. Rows among the jurors were rare, he said, and the 12 had been respectful of one another.
The jury foreman said he would have convicted the former governor on all counts, but praised his fellow jury members. “They were very strong personalities,” James Matsumoto said. “They were all independent thinkers.”
He said jurors came close to convictions on a number of the 24 counts against the former governor — as close as 11-1 — but remained far apart on others.
The jury also deadlocked on the four counts against Blagojevich’s brother, Robert.
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