Popular gist of sitations comedies is the jury episode, and it often involves a holdout juror who supports the presumbably wrongly accused. The best-known example is when matronly Aunt Bee puts her faith in a character played by Jack Nicholson, who has been accused of burgarly on the Andy Griffith Show. Aunt Bee, with an assist from her sagacious nephew, saves the day for Jack, she was the holdout. I guess the other eleven "couldn't handle the truth."
Could have one juror on the Rod Blagojevich panel, a self appointed Aunt Bee, watched too much television?
From AP:
Juror Erik Sarnello of Itasca, Ill., said the panel was deadlocked 11-1 in favor of convicting Blagojevich of trying to auction off the Senate seat. He said one woman on the panel "just didn't see what we all saw." The 21-year-old Sarnello said the counts involving the Senate seat were "the most obvious."Or perhaps "Aunt Bee" decided that Blago was innocent because he was a victim of the Chicago Way of Politics.
Other jurors tried to persuade the holdout to reconsider, but "at a certain point, there was no changing," he said.
If that's true, then the way it is stinks, and it needs to be changed.
Illinois Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) issued this statemen, which calls for real change:
One of my biggest concerns is that the Blagojevich defense team may have convinced people that he was just practicing politics as usual in Illinois. If that is the case, it is a real indictment of the political leadership in this state. If there is one thing that elected officials need to do in Illinois, it is to send a strong signal that the politics of the past are over, regardless of what the final verdict may be in the Blagojevich trial.At least Blago was found guilty on one count, lying to federal officials. Patrick Fitzgerald, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, says there will be a retrial on the 23 other charges.
I intend to redouble my efforts to achieve fundamental, structural reforms of state government. It is our job as elected officials to make sure the public has confidence in the integrity of their government. We all have a responsibility to send a clear signal that Illinoisans do not need to tolerate even the appearance of conflicts of interest by elected officials.
That means reforming state contracting rules to guarantee competition and protect against political influence. Elected officials need to get out of the business of lobbying. We need to end legislative scholarships and other outdated perks. We need real campaign finance reform. We need to make government more open and transparent and that means opening up the legislative process and empowering individual legislators to follow the will of their constituents.
We need a clean break from the past so that no corrupt politician can ever again claim to be simply following business as usual.
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