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The Trial of Governor Rod Blagojevich

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s trial has begun.  Recently,  the first day of jury selection (voir dire) for the federal corruption trial took place.  The Pepperdine University law graduate is accused in 24 counts of trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Oboma when he resigned his Senate seat.  U.S. District Judge James Zagel began screening a pool of almost 100 potential jurors.  The judge got through 29 potential jurors.   Their identities are not public.  They are addressed by number. Blagojevich was in celebrity mode-or maybe running-for-office-mode.  Smiling broadly, he waved and shook hands with supporters when he arrived at the courthouse.  He posed for cell phone camera photos for some on request, as his wife, Patti, tugged on his arm to get into the courthouse.   “The truth shall set you free,” he said to reporters.   He kissed one supporter who held up a sign supporting him.  He hugged one man who said, “God bless you, Governor. I’m praying for you.” Inside the courthouse, Patti stepped up to reporters and television cameras and told everyone of Blagojevich’s innocence.  She thanked everyone who has supported her husband since his impeachment and said she was glad to get the trial underway. The ex-governor’s older brother, Robert, of Nashville, Tennessee, also accused, arrived and entered the courthouse outside the roped-off area reserved for the ex-governor, and sat at a separate table in the courtroom.  He left for lunch while the ex-governor and his wife ate sandwiches in the courtroom. The judge spent considerable time inquiring about the jurors’ exposure to publicity about the case.  Most had seen or heard something, but they said they could nevertheless be fair.  This selection process is expected to continue for several days. Jury selection is a critical portion of any trial.  Likely defense lawyers will be looking for jurors, probably blue collar, who would identify with their client’s background from humble roots.  It is common belief that most jurors buy into the prosecution’s view from the beginning in the belief that a defendant must be guilty if he is accused.  It is that bias that criminal defense lawyers fight from the first minute to the last minute of any trial.  Defense lawyers focus on the requirement for unanimity for a verdict, and one of Blagojevich’s attorneys, Sam Adams, Jr., is known to focus on persuading just a certain few members of the jury during a trial. Judge Zagel questioned an algebra teacher, a legal assistant, a computer lab technician, a retired customer service representative, and an insurance actuary.  When the customer service representative said she had trouble remembering words and names.  “Welcome to the club,” the judge retorted.  He asked another, who worked for his wife, if his wife was a difficult employer.   Another potential juror was a former precinct captain who said she would ask for guidance from her heavenly father to help her decide guilt or innocence. Flashbacks on jury selection recall Blagojevich’s predecessor, Governor George Ryan, who was convicted of corruption in a federal trial.  Ryan’s trial almost resulted in a mistrial when several of the seated 12 jurors had to be replaced by alternate jurors during the trial, including two of them during actual deliberations after the close of all evidence.  That required deliberations to begin all over with the new members.  The judge decided to make replacements after it was discovered some of the jurors had concealed arrest records during voir dire. Prosecutors claim they have 500 hours of secret recordings of the ex-governor.  Of course, the F.B.I. leaked the tapes.  Blagojevich claims the tapes, when listened to in their entirety, prove his innocence.  He is facing a maximum of 450 years in prison and $8 million in fines.

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Crime in Indian Country

Posted by Edmond Geary on 03-08-2012

There are 33 federally-recognized Native American tribes in Oklahoma, and 310 Indian reservations in the country.  Each tribe legislates and administers its own laws, including criminal laws.  Their laws can punish only up to 3 years for a violation, so for more serious crimes, the tribes send the matter to the federal government for prosecution.   But that hasn’t been working so well.

The rate of crime on Indian land is high.  Statistics shows the following:  Indian reservations have violent crime rates exceeding 2 ½ times the national average.  Indian women are 10 times more likely to be murdered than non-Indians and are sexually assaulted at 4 times the national average.

These crimes are investigated by the tribes and the F.B.I., and they are sent to the Department of Justice for prosecution.  That means the local U.S. Attorney’s offices prosecute them, but they are filing charges in only half the murder cases sent to them and only one-third of the sexual assault cases.  The tribes can’t understand why.

In 2011, federal prosecutors declined to file over half the most serious crimes of all types on Indian reservations.  They declined 61 percent of sexual abuse of children cases and declined 65 percent of rape cases.    But contrast, the Justice Department declined only 20 percent of drug trafficking charges for the country as a whole.

The F.B.I. is notoriously slow and painstaking in its investigation of crimes.  Any experienced criminal defense attorney will tell you that.  But as the years tick past while matters are “under investigation,” no one from the reservation has been informed of anything.  One problem may be the quality of investigations by the tribe police because federal prosecutors are much more selective than state prosecutors in accepting cases to file.  But it is the F.B.I. that is investigating many or most of these cases, so that does not explain the startling lack of prosecutions.  A former tribal judge has complained that U.S. Attorneys declined to file a rape case of a 13 year old girl by a 31-year-old man, even though two family members interrupted the attack and there was a DNA match.  Neither did the U.S. Attorneys offer any explanation why no charges were filed.  After the U.S. Attorney declined to file, the man was eventually prosecuted in tribal court but received only a year in jail.

Matters have caused so much outrage in Indian Country that one family has filed a lawsuit in Montana to complain about the federal government’s failures to enforce the law.  The  family of Steven Bearcrane has brought an action in U.S. District Court in Montana, alleging lack of due process and lack of equal protection under that laws.

The family of Steven Bearcrane was so incensed that the federal authorities did nothing to prosecute the death of Steven Bearclaw on the Crow Reservation that they brought a lawsuit in federal court against the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office and a couple of individuals.  They filed it interestingly under the Administrative Procedure Act rather than as a civil rights lawsuit, and claimed the U.S. Attorney’s office in South Dakota had followed “a pattern and practice of declining prosecutions in cases in which the victims of those crimes are North Americans.”

The district court agreed that precedent had established that law enforcement officers cannot exercise their discretion in a discriminatory fashion.  However, upon several legal bases, the district court dismissed the claims that was based on due process of law as to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office, keeping alive only one claim against one Matthew Oravec.  The point here is not so much whether they prevail in their lawsuit but the situation is so unsatisfactory that they feel the need to sue the authorities for protection.

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