Feds Ask Judge To Set Re-Sentencing Date For Blagojevich
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to set a re-sentencing date for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, after deciding not to retry him on five counts tossed by an appeals court.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Blagojevich's last-ditch bid for an appeal of his corruption case. The former governor had been convicted of 18 felony charges after two trials, and is serving a 14-year sentence at a federal prison in Colorado.
Eight months ago, a federal appeals court threw out five of those convictions, but upheld the other 13, and ordered the trial judge to resentence Blagojevich, if prosecutors opted not to retry him on those five counts.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel has not scheduled any further proceedings since the appeals court ruling, presumably waiting for the Supreme Court to decide if it would take up the case.
Now that the Supreme Court won't be considering Blagojevich's case, federal prosecutors on Wednesday filed a motion stating they would not retry Blagojevich, and asking Zagel to set a re-sentencing date.
It was not immediately clear when Zagel would respond to the feds' request.
While Blagojevich, 59, could get a reduced sentence after the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals tossed five of Blagojevich's convictions, the court noted the evidence against the former governor was "overwhelming," and the 14-year sentence he received was not necessarily excessive for the 13 remaining convictions.
"It is not possible to call 168 months unlawfully high for Blagojevich's crimes, but the district judge should consider on remand whether it is the most appropriate sentence," the appeals court wrote last year.