Blagojevich Attorneys Granted More Time For Trial
UPDATED: 10/22/2010 12:42 p.m. /em>
CHICAGO (CBS) - A judge on Friday granted a request to delay former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's retrial.
The trial will now start on April 20.
The former governor's attorneys said they could not possibly be ready for a January start date, as Judge James Zagel had originally proposed.
Blagojevich's defense team has been cut down to two attorneys and a paralegal now that his legal bills are being paid with public funds. Those lawyers had filed a motion seeking to delay the trial until May, saying they need more time to get ready.
Defense attorneys noted that there were more than a dozen lawyers working on the case at the first trial.
"The new trial team simply does not have the resources to adequately prepare for a January trial," attorneys wrote in their motion. "Time is needed for the two current trial lawyers to prepare adequately. To proceed to trial in two months time, with a drastically reduced defense team is an unworkable framework."
Blagojevich was convicted of lying to federal investigators at his first trial, but jurors deadlocked on 23 other counts.
