After convicting the former governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich for corruption, the judges in President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat lawsuit are now concerned how harsh his prison time should be!
Yesterday on Monday June 27, 2011, HollywoodReporter reported the 54 year old once a Celebrity Apprentice participant Blagojevich was found guilty of trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat. The charges included wire fraud, attempted extortion, bribery and conspiracy, and the verdict came as the Chicago jurors deliberated for nine days at Blagojevich’s retrial.
Blagojevich was also found guilty of holding up official acts on the Illinois Tollway, a school grant, horse-racing legislation and the Children’s Memorial Hospital, and even though federal guidelines are likely to dictate a much shorter sentence, Blagojevich could now face up to 300 years in jail.
According to DailyMail, Blagojevich has now been barred from travelling outside the northern Illinois area without permission, and the judge set a status hearing for sentencing on August 1.
Federal guidelines and previous sentences handed down to other Illinois politicians guilty of corruption suggest he could get around ten years in prison. However, judges have a huge amount of discretion, and can factor in a host of variables, including whether a defendant took the stand and lied, something prosecutors say Blagojevich did.
