Walter's Perspective: Blago Judge Is Choosing Sides
By WALTER JACOBSON
May 17, 2011
The news about new Mayor Rahm Emanuel this week has been burying the news about Rod Blagojevich.
But if you've been following what news there is about the Blagojevich trial, you must be thinking by now that Blago is going down.
I'm thinking that because of how unfair the judge seems to be; how much in favor of the prosecution he is. U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel has been preventing Blago's lawyers from asking questions his honor says don't follow the protocol of a court.
"Back-door questions," Zagel says; "advice-of-counsel questions" – whatever that means.
The judge is himself a former prosecutor, lecturing Blago's lawyers more than helping jurors understand the case.
He seems less interested in the jury finding truth than finding Blago guilty.
Come on, your honor! Enough of the gobbledygook. How about letting the jury hear both sides of the case, and listen to all the information, and discern the truth.
What's wrong with that?
