Judge gives Blagojevich same 14-year prison term despite pleas for mercy

CHICAGO — Saying Rod Blagojevich’s corruption diminished the public’s “already taxed faith” in its elected leaders, a federal judge Tuesday imposed the same 14-year prison sentence he had in 2011 despite emotional pleas for leniency from the former governor, his wife and two daughters.

“I do not doubt that {Blagojevich} is a loving father and that his children miss him deeply in his absence,” U.S. District Judge James Zagel said in announcing his decision in a packed courtroom. “But as I said four years ago, the fault lies in the governor.”

The decision, which means Blagojevich, 59, will remain behind bars until 2024, appeared to stun the ex-governor, who was looking on by closed-circuit television from a federal prison in Colorado. As the hearing came to an end, Blagojevich, dressed in blue prison garb and with his famously jet-black hair now snow white, shook his head and brushed his mouth with his hand as he collapsed back into his seat, saying something inaudible.

Inside Judge Zagel’s 25th-floor courtroom, both of Blagojevich’s daughters burst into tears when they realized their father’s sentence had remained the same. Blagojevich, who could apparently hear the sobbing but could not see his family because the camera was still trained on the judge’s bench, stood for a moment, then grabbed a brown file folder and walked off-screen.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-nation/2016/08/10/Judge-gives-Blagojevich-same-14-year-prison-term-despite-pleas-for-mercy/201608100121