Rod Blagojevich 14-year prison sentence
Rod Blagojevich starts his Thursday facing a bleak countdown — 71 days before the twice-elected Illinois governor must say good-bye to his family and begin serving a 14-year sentence for corruption.
During those days, he will scramble to get his financial affairs in order and spend a final birthday and Christmas at home with his wife, Patti, and their two young daughters before heading off to prison to serve the sentence handed down Wednesday.
The next time Blagojevich gets to spend Christmas or his birthday with his children — 15-year-old Amy and 8-year-old Annie — they will likely be young adults. Blagojevich, whose 55th birthday is Saturday, won’t be eligible for early release for about 12 years, when he will be around 67 years old.
“I’ve had a lot of clients who’ve had to start making preparations the day after they were sentenced,” said Gal Pissetzky, a federal defense attorney based in Chicago. “But not a single one of them has been able to prepare for saying good-bye to their children.”
Judge James Zagel sentenced Blagojevich on Wednesday on 18 counts of corruption, including his June convictions on charges that he tried to sell or trade an appointment to President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat for campaign cash or a top job. The impeached governor must report to prison on Feb. 16.
The Blagojeviches, who say his legal troubles also devastated them financially, put their home up for sale after he was convicted in June, and he would likely want to find a buyer before he heads off to prison. They initially listed it for $1.07 million but reportedly lowered the price recently by several thousand dollars.
To make sure his wife can make those and other financial transactions on her own, Blagojevich will also want to make sure he signs necessary papers to give her power of attorney, Pissetzky said.
Blagojevich joins a long list of Illinois governors who have been charged with crimes, four of the past nine of whom saw jail time. As Elizabeth Flock explained:
When former governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich was sentenced yesterday on 18 counts of corruption, his attorney, wife and supporters said he had done nothing to warrant 14 years in jail. Yet Blagojevich got just that, an unusually harsh punishment intended to send a signal to the state of Illinois, which has been racked by corrupt politicians for decades.
So corrupt, in fact, that in the past four decades, four Illinois governors have gone to prison. That’s four out of the past nine governors in office. Two more governors who were charged with crimes were later acquitted.
So why did Blagojevich’s audio tapes, many in which the former governor spoke vaguely, (“if, in fact, this is possible, then some of this stuff has to start happening now,” referring to the campaign contributions) get him in such hot water? Why is Illinois being tough now?
source: washingtonpost