Politics & Government

Juror No. 146 Shares Her Experience with Metea Students

Connie Wilson, a Naperville resident who was the jury foreperson in the Rod Blagojevich corruption trial spoke to students about her experience earlier this week.

Update: Attorneys for Rod Blagojevich filed an emergency motion Friday asking for a court hearing to determine if Connie Wilson engaged in misconduct based on some of the information she provided during her visit at Metea Valley. 

When Rod Blagojevich heads to prison next year, he will be given a number. His new identification is thanks in part to a woman previously known as No. 146.

Earlier this week Juror No. 146, now known to all by her real name Connie Wilson, spent time talking with students at Metea Valley High School. 

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Wilson, a Naperville resident, spoke with students from government classes and Advanced Placement courses at the school. She shared her inside view of the courtroom, her views of the former governor, now a convicted felon, and a little bit about the experience. During the classes, students were encouraged to ask questions.

When Wilson was chosen for the jury in the Rod Blagojevich trial, it wasn’t her first time as a juror. She’d sat on a murder trial before, she told the class.

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When she initially received a summons for jury duty in the federal case, she noted the questions were pretty general. Later, she received another questionnaire that was much more involved and specific with very pointed questions.

One of the questions she was asked was: “Are all government officials corrupt?” 

“In my infinite wisdom I couldn’t respond because it isn’t a yes or no answer,” she said.

Since she couldn’t respond with a simple yes or a no as required, she wrote an essay and returned her questionnaire. Later during voir dire, (questioning of the jury) Federal Judge James Zagel specifically asked her about her response. She said she believes people run for office because they want to make change, but over time they realize they need to bargain and negotiate to get what they want and for some that leads them to corruption to get what they want. 

“I think that was the case with our former governor,” she said.

Wilson told students the potential jurors were asked whether or not serving would cause a significant hardship, several jurors said it would be, but were chosen anyway.

The day she learned she would be a juror on the trial, she said it was late in the afternoon and the members of the jury pool still hadn’t had lunch. The potential jurors had been at the courthouse for hours and they were hungry. Finally, a bailiff gathered a group from the pool, calling them by their numbers, he packed them into a service elevator and when they were inside he dropped the bombshell that they would be the jury, “in case they hadn’t figured it out,” she said. 

“How could you eat after that,” she said. “Imagine you just heard that and think about your reaction.” 

The jurors began to realize their lives would be on hold for an unknown amount of time. And, another person’s fate would be in their hands.

One juror had planned to take a vacation and on that vacation he was planning to propose to his girlfriend, she said.

The members of the jury took their job very seriously, she said. They took meticulous notes and paid close attention to what was going on in the courtroom. How the attorneys acted, how Blagojevich acted, everything was being noted.

“We constantly reminded ourselves he (Blagojevich) was innocent until proven guilty,” she said.

He was already a convicted felon from his first trial and she said that when the prosecuting attorney asked Blagojevich if he was a felon, it took him 10 to 15 minutes to respond and he never answered yes or no. Finally, the judge asked him and very quietly he responded that yes he was a felon.

His words sealed his fate, Wilson said. Blagojevich chose to talk and talk and talk at one point during the trial, despite his attorney’s attempts to stop him. Wilson said Blagojevich told his attorney, “I want to talk.” 

What Blagojevich said as he spoke differed from what he said in previous testimony and the jurors caught it and, she said, that helped seal his fate. Wilson, who attended the sentencing, was surprised Blagojevich received a 14 sentence she thought he would get 10 to 12 years.

But, she said, the former governor was a lawyer. He knew the law and had to know that what he was doing wasn’t legal.

Speaking to the students Wilson said she hopes they know that they can effect change and that they are responsible. 

Some people may vote based solely on a recommendation from a friend. They may not know anything about a candidate when they cast their ballot, she said. Other people choose not to vote and then later complain.

“We voted him into office and we voted him in twice,” she said of Blagojevich. 

She said it is important that young people and all voters take their civic responsibilities seriously. Wilson said that since she has been involved in the trial her own daughter, who once wasn’t very interested in politics or voting, has changed her view and is paying much more attention to what the politicians are saying.


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