Former Gov. Blagojevich Sentenced to 14-years

By Stefani Camille
Streetgangs.com Staff Writer
December 7, 2011|2:00 p.m.

On Wednesday, former Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14-years in Federal prison for crimes he committed in 2008 when he was arrested on corruption charges. Federal prosecutors said that Blagojevich once was seriously considering appointing himself but Prosecutors allege that decided to go a different route. Red flags went up and Blagojevich became a man of interest to the FBI, which led to wiretapping his home and office for evidence that the governor was indeed trying to sell President Obama’s senate seat to the highest bidder. Blagojevich was hoping to get personal favors in exchange for Obama’s seat.

The former governor stood in front of Judge James Zagel, and was sentenced for the 18 counts of corruption he was convicted on. Blagojevich is not alone as a former governor of Illinois to be sentenced to prison.

He is the second governor in a row and fourth governor in the last four decades to be sent to prison. George Ryan, his republican predecessor is currently serving a 6 1/2 year sentence for a corruption conviction. Blagojevich, 54, will begin serving his sentence next February. The former governor spoke at the sentencing and apologized to the court, saying, “I am sorry to the people of Illinois, to the court, for the mistakes I have made and that I never set out to break the law.” Judge Zagel didn’t buy his plea to the court and said that although he did do some good for the people of Illinois, he was more concerned about using his powers for himself.

Posted by stef on Dec 7 2011. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.