A new petition asking President Barack Obama to grant executive clemency to incarcerated former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was created after a federal judge declined to lower the embattled politician’s sentence last week.
Blagojevich was found guilty in 2011 on a series of counts, including attempting to sell Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat. He has served four years of his 14-year sentence at a federal prison in Littleton, Colorado. Last week, U.S. District Judge James Zagel upheld Blagojevich’s original sentence, despite an appeals court tossing five of the 18 counts he was convicted on.
“We ask that President Barack Obama offer executive clemency and allow Rod to leave prison based on the sentence of the time that has already been served,” the petition reads. “Combination the prison sentence to time served would allow Rod to again be a productive citizen in society again, and be offered the opportunity to help raise his children.”
The petition currently has 884 of the 100,000 signatures needed by Sept. 9 to get a response from the White House. It lists the creater of the petition only as "A.G."
