United States Seventh Circuit

Convictions of the ex-governor of Illinois and his associate on charges of RICO and mail fraud violations are affirmed over defendants' arguments that: 1) the verdict was tainted by jurors' use of extraneous legal materials; 2) the dismissal of a juror was an arbitrary removal of a defense holdout; 3) the substitution of jurors after deliberations had begun was error; 4) the exclusion of certain evidence was an erroneous exclusion of exculpatory evidence; 5) the prosecution failed to identify an "enterprise" for purposes of its charges under RICO; 6) the mail fraud charges were grounded in an unconstitutionally vague criminal statute; 7) the associate should not have had his trial joined with the ex-governor's; and 8) certain grand jury testimony violated the ex-governor's attorney-client privilege. Despite problems with the conduct of the trial, any error that occurred was harmless, according to the panel.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/21/2007
• Published 08/21/2007

Judges

• Before MANION, KANNE, and WOOD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Stuart D. Fullerton, Edmond E. Chang, Office of the United States Attorney, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellee., Marc W. Martin (argued), Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellant Warner., Dan K. Webb, Winston & Strawn, Chicago, IL, Gene C. Schaerr (argued), Winston & Strawn, Washington, DC, for Defendant-Appellant Ryan.