Many are calling this a victory for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich after a jury found him guilty of just one out of the 23 federal charges he was facing. The guilty verdict, making false statements to the FBI, was the smallest count the jury could have handed down.
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Deliberating for 14 days, the jury said they were deadlocked on the other 23 counts which included wire fraud, racketeering, extortion and bribery, the one charge Blagojevich was found guilty usually signals the jury was very close to innocent on all charges, however, because of a hold-out juror, a concession had to be made so they could all return to their lives.
Blagojevich could now receive a few months behind bars, if he had been convicted on all the charges it would have been more like 40 years and at least $500,000 in fines.
The feds spent a small fortune in tax payer dollars going after Blagojevich and the outcome is nothing short of a major embarrassment for prosecutors.