Divided 7th Circuit Rejects IL Gov's Appeal
A former Illinois governor may soon be headed to jail after the rejection of his appeal of his federal corruption conviction.
The full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused today to grant an en banc hearing to reconsider an earlier decision by a divided three-judge appellate court panel to uphold former Gov. George Ryan’s conviction, reports the Chicago Tribune.
Although the majority did not comment on the ruling, a three-judge minority said in a dissent, as the Tribune puts it, “that the evidence of Ryan’s guilt was overwhelming, but that a defendant has a right to a trial that meets minimum standards of procedural justice.” As the dissent saw it, “a cascade of errors” during his six-month trial had turned the proceeding “into a travesty.”
However, an August majority opinion (PDF) by a 7th Circuit appellate panel found the errors during Ryan’s trial to be harmless, as a previous ABAJournal.com post discusses.
Among other issues, a Tribune news report during jury deliberations that two jurors had concealed their arrest records during jury selection apparently prompted the trial judge to conduct her own investigation and replace them with alternates. At that point, she instructed jurors to start deliberating again from scratch.
