Jury of 12 finally selected in Madigan corruption case -- but work is not done

CHICAGO — And on the 7th day, a jury was selected.

After a long week of intensive questioning, a panel of 12 people that will decide the fate of former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan was finalized Thursday, although attorneys for both sides still needed to select six alternates to sit for the landmark trial.

The final member of the eight-woman, four-man panel selected Thursday morning is a man from Chicago who works at a hospital and said he knows Madigan’s name but no details. “I’m a little embarrassed. I’m not really sure what position he held,” he said. “I don’t follow politics all that much.”

He joins a group that includes a former kindergarten teacher, an Amazon warehouse worker, a Southwest Side insurance underwriter, a suburban nurse, and a Wrigleyville woman who manages tenants for a downtown commercial building.

A pool of more than 150 potential jurors from all over northern Illinois was called into the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse beginning last week, and attorneys are questioning each member of the panel individually to weed out potential bias. They are being referred to in court only by their juror numbers to protect their privacy.

Jury selection has taken much longer than anticipated and at times slowed to a crawl as attorneys delved into prospective jurors’ news consumption habits, their familiarity with Madigan, and whether they have any opinions about unions, lobbying or politics.

Although U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey has been insistent he would not rush the parties though the important process, the judge for the first time suggested time limits for questioning — which he referred to as a “shot clock” — if things don’t improve.

“I think I have a record at this point of a lack of efficiency in questioning,” Blakey said during a midafternoon break Wednesday, after attorneys had taken nearly an hour and a half to question just three prospective jurors. “I’m not rushing anybody, but I will require them to be efficient, and I think there’s been a little bit of an issue with that.”

Questioning after that became notably more brisk.

Earlier in the day, defense attorneys had spent a significant amount of time grilling a prospective juror about his political stances, asking over and over whether he could really be impartial, given his appreciation of Fox News and his anti-abortion beliefs.

After that prospective juror left the stand, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amarjeet Bhachu complained that, in his view, defense attorneys were trying to exhaust certain jurors with persistent, repetitive questions, in an attempt to get them to admit they couldn’t be fair.

“Wearing a juror down like that for 20 or 30 minutes, at some point they’re probably going to capitulate,” Bhachu said.

Blakey said that prosecutors should object if they think a question has already been asked and answered.

The Fox News-watching juror was later removed by agreement of both prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Opening statements had initially been expected Tuesday, but that plan was quickly scrapped as attorneys delved into the weeds of each prospective juror’s history and possible biases. The judge then slated openings for next Monday but has since hinted that even that date might be in jeopardy, saying he had a panel of jurors “on call” for that day if they still need them.

“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst,” Blakey told the attorneys late Wednesday.

Before questioning of jurors resumed Thursday, Blakey said he could not longer take the parties’ 11-week estimate for the trial on faith alone, and asked both sides to analyze their witnesses and evidence and report to him an estimate of how many hours they expect their direct or cross-examinations to take.

“I’m going to do some math to see if everyone is on the same page,” Blakey said. “There is a big difference between going granular… and if people just ballpark it.”

Madigan, 82, the Democratic powerhouse who served for decades as speaker of the Illinois House, faces racketeering charges alleging he ran his state and political operations like a criminal enterprise, scheming with utility giants ComEd and AT&T to put his cronies on contracts requiring little or no work and using his public position to drum up business for his private law firm.

Both Madigan and his co-defendant, Michael McClain, 77, a former ComEd lobbyist and longtime confidant of Madigan’s, have pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing.

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