A day and a half of intensive questioning yielded no new jurors by midday Wednesday in the corruption trial of Michael Madigan, as the already sluggish pace of jury selection slowed to a crawl.
From Tuesday morning to midday Wednesday, 18 prospective jurors were questioned, some of whom were on the witness stand for 45 minutes or longer. The majority of them were rejected from consideration due to apparent bias or hardship.
The handful remaining were kicked off the panel by peremptory strikes, for which attorneys do not have to articulate a reason.
Eleven jurors have already been chosen over the course of jury selection, which began Oct. 8 with prospective jurors filling out a written questionnaire. Attorneys still must select one final person for the regular jury as well as six alternates.
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.
The trial is expected to last at least 11 weeks.
McClain’s attorneys used one peremptory strike Wednesday to remove a retired Lake Forest woman who worked in regulatory matters at a pharmaceutical company.
Madigan on Wednesday used two peremptories, rejecting a man who worked in finance and was originally from Baltimore and a Bloomingdale woman who said she had in the past received lots of political mailers with an anti-Madigan slant.
Prosecutors used one strike, removing a driver for a beverage company whose mother had run for office in New Jersey as a Republican.
Jurors selected so far include 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.
Also chosen were a woman from the Mount Greenwood neighborhood who wanted to be on the panel to “give back to my city,” another who works at donation center, and a third who is a patient coordinator for University of Chicago Medical Center.
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.
Prospective jurors have been grilled about their news consumption habits, their familiarity with Madigan, and whether they have any opinions about unions, lobbying or the state of Illinois politics.
The first three jurors were chosen Oct. 9, including a former kindergarten teacher, an Amazon warehouse worker and a Southwest Side insurance underwriter.
Five more were selected Thursday, including a suburban nurse and a Wrigleyville woman who said she recently helped her friend who plans professional events for Pritzker put on an event for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Chosen Friday were three women: one who lives in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood and wanted to be on the panel to “give back to my city,” another who works at donation center, and a third who is a patient coordinator for University of Chicago Medical Center.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com
