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Blagojevich defense team wants to restart jury selection in Illinois corruption trial

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Thursday, May 27, 2010

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File photo of Rod Blagojevich in 2006
Image: Erik Abderhalden.

Lawyers for former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich claim that the judge in his corruption trial inappropriately dismissed hundreds of potential jurors without consulting any of the parties in the case. As the trial is likely to last for several months, US District Judge James Zagel had stated in a previous hearing that he would conduct a "hardship screening" process and dismiss those jurors he feels would be burdened by this duty. 

The defense team, however, argues that it must be involved in such changes to the jury pool and claims that over 300 people may have been dismissed in this "unilateral" move. The lawyers are expected to request a redo of the selection process during a status hearing before Zagel on Thursday. 

The trial is scheduled to begin on June 3. Blagojevich's lawyers have already filed a request with the US Supreme Court to delay the trial on different, constitutional grounds. Justice John Paul Stevens has given prosecutors until Friday to respond to that motion. 

Sources

  • Blagojevich Lawyers: Start Over on Jury — My Fox Chicago, May 26, 2010
  • Blagojevich's lawyer say judge has mishandled jury selection — Chicago Tribune, May 26, 2010


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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
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