CHICAGO (AP) — As jurors in ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s corruption trial enter their second full week of deliberations, another group of 12 has an inkling of what’s going on behind closed doors.
The jurors whose 2006 verdict put former Illinois Gov. George Ryan behind bars also felt the pressure of deciding a complex, high-stakes case, knowing their verdict would make headlines nationwide.
For nearly two weeks, they discussed — sometimes heatedly — what they’d watched in court over seven months. One juror refused to deliberate before she was eventually removed from the jury.
Whether that kind of drama is unfolding among Blagojevich jurors is anyone’s guess. But jurors in the Ryan case say that after this long, it’s inevitable that nerves are getting a bit frayed.
