Post by Logan on Mar 28, 2016 20:37:03 GMT -6
It can't really come as a surprise — can it? — that the U.S. Supreme Court saw no reason to weigh in on whether disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich got a raw deal when he was sent to prison for using his office to extort campaign cash and other benefits for himself.
The former governor had argued that his case presented the nation's highest court with a bleeping golden opportunity to draw a bright line between garden-variety political bartering and felonious public corruption.
Blagojevich was confident the justices would find that the behavior that earned him 18 convictions and a 14-year prison sentence was not out of bounds. But the high court shrugged off his appeal, upholding an appellate court ruling that vacated five of those convictions on technicalities and sent the case back to the trial court for resentencing.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel could shave a few years off the sentence, but don't count on it. He threw the book at Blagojevich in 2011 to make a point — a point the former governor didn't get then and apparently doesn't get now.
Read more: www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-blagojevich-sentence-scotus-appeal-reject-edit-0329-jm-20160328-story.html
The former governor had argued that his case presented the nation's highest court with a bleeping golden opportunity to draw a bright line between garden-variety political bartering and felonious public corruption.
Blagojevich was confident the justices would find that the behavior that earned him 18 convictions and a 14-year prison sentence was not out of bounds. But the high court shrugged off his appeal, upholding an appellate court ruling that vacated five of those convictions on technicalities and sent the case back to the trial court for resentencing.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel could shave a few years off the sentence, but don't count on it. He threw the book at Blagojevich in 2011 to make a point — a point the former governor didn't get then and apparently doesn't get now.
Read more: www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-blagojevich-sentence-scotus-appeal-reject-edit-0329-jm-20160328-story.html