ComEd Chicago trial enters 8th week as jury continues to deliberate in Mike Madigan bribery case
Jury has been deliberating for some 20 hours in 'ComEd Four' Trial
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Week two of deliberations in the trial of the so-called "ComEd Four" began Monday at the Dirksen Federal Building.
The defendants are accused of trying to bribe former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, to get legislation favorable to ComEd passed in Springfield.
The jury has been deliberating for some 20 hours already.
The trial entered its eighth week Monday.
The fate of the so-called ComEd Four remains undecided.
A jury of seven women and five men returned to deliberations Monday morning after a three-day weekend.
SEE MORE: 'ComEd Four' trial: Jury deliberates for 2nd day in bribery case surrounding Mike Madigan
A question arose early in the day, as jurors requested clarification in what appears to be a language discrepancy between the indictment and the instructions, one which would appear to lessen the burden of proof required to convict.
The question is one of seven posed by jurors so far in what is now the fourth day of deliberations, as they continue to sift through a mountain of evidence presented by a government determined to prove that former ComEd executives and lobbyists Anne Pramaggiore, Mike McClain, John Hooker and Jay Doherty engaged in an eight-year conspiracy to bribe then-House Speaker Mike Madigan, in exchange for his help getting legislation passed in Springfield.
That legislation benefited the utility company to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The ComEd case is important in that it for the first time exposed the inner workings of Madigan's political machine, one in which jobs and contracts were exchanged for political favors. Madigan himself was indicted last March.
The corruption trial is the most significant to be held in Illinois since former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's in 2011.
That jury was out for 10 days before convicting him.
