Jurors in the marathon trial of ex-speaker Michael Madigan were to return Wednesday to “start fresh,” in their words, after ending deliberations early on Tuesday afternoon.
Wednesday marks their 11th day of deliberating, and they have been remarkably quiet for most of it.
Their most recent note to the judge, sent up at about 3 p.m. Tuesday, said merely “We have reached our limit for today. We would like to leave early and start fresh in the morning.” U.S. District John Robert Blakey granted their request.
Besides that note, the jury, which began deliberating on the afternoon of Jan. 29, was silent all day, sending no other questions on the law or notes signaling where they were in their discussions.
Their last substantive communication came on Friday, when they sent the judge a question delving deep into the legal weeds on what can be considered a “thing of value.”
They also asked for two binders full of wiretap transcripts.
As of Tuesday afternoon they had deliberated for roughly 63 hours — one of the longest deliberations in any major federal public corruption trial in the past two decades. The jury in the case against former Gov. George Ryan reached a guilty verdict after 10 days of deliberations in 2006, while ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich was convicted at his 2011 retrial on the 11th day.
The jury in the “ComEd Four” bribery case, which featured evidence that overlapped significantly with some of the evidence in the Madigan trial, reached a verdict after about 27 hours. And jurors in the racketeering trial of former Ald. Ed Burke found him guilty in about 23 hours.
Madigan, 82, of Chicago’s Southwest Side, was for decades the most powerful man in Illinois politics, reigning over the state Democratic Party and setting a national record for longest-serving speaker of a state house. He is charged in a racketeering indictment that accused him of running his political and government operations like a criminal enterprise. McClain, 77, is a retired lobbyist from downstate Quincy.
Jurors have to consider 23 counts against Madigan alleging an array of schemes to enrich his political allies and line his pockets. McClain is charged in six of those counts.
In addition to alleging plans to pressure developers into hiring Madigan’s law firm, the indictment accuses Madigan and McClain of bribery schemes involving ComEd and AT&T Illinois, where the utilities allegedly funneled payments through do-nothing subcontracts to a handful of the speaker’s closest allies.
To assist their deliberations, jurors have about 100 pages of legal instructions, dozens of undercover recordings, and hundreds of emails, texts and other documents entered into evidence.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
rlong@chicagotribune.com
