Blago jury continues deliberating

June 20, 2011 (CHICAGO)

It has been five days of deliberations without a verdict. On Monday, the jury returned for a sixth day.

Blagojevich is accused of trying to sell or trade President Barack Obama's old U.S. Senate seat.

Blagojevich maintained his innocence in the first trial and again in the second, this time taking the stand in his defense.

The jury sent the judge a question last Thursday. They asked for clarification on an instruction of law that had to do with the wire fraud counts against the impeached governor.

Jurors were told to reread their instructions if they had another question.

The long-time rule of thumb is that you have one day of deliberations for every week of the trial, and the Blagojevich corruption retrial lasted six weeks, not including jury selection, so it stands to reason that a verdict could come soon.

In its first trial, the previous jury, which convicted Blagojevich on one count of lying to the FBI, asked its second question on day three of deliberations. They wanted a transcript of the whole trial, but the judge said no. The previous jury took 14 days to reach a verdict.

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