Now comes the time jurors will find out what's actually on each others mind.
After five months of trial, and nearly a week of closing arguments, the federal jury in downtown Detroit in the Kwame Kilpatrick public corruption trial begins deliberating this morning. Up until now, jurors were not supposed to share their thoughts on the trial.
There's no telling for certain how long the jury will be out.
But considering there are so many charges involved, it could easily be a week and possibly two before jurors deliver up their verdict.
Kwame Kilpatrick faces 30 counts. His father Bernard Kilpatrick faces 4 and Bobby Ferguson, 11.
If convicted of the most serious charges, they each could go to prison for 20 years, though a sentence of that magnitude for a public corruption case would be highly unusual.
Some of the toughest public corruption case sentences in recent years have included ex-Congessman William Jefferson of New Orleans (the guy with the $90,000 in the freezer), who got 13 years and ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who got 14 years.
Like Kwame Kilpatrick, both were politicians who chose to go to trial and fight the charges rather than hammer out a deal with the feds. The feds tried Blagojevich a second time after the first trial resulted in a conviction in only 1 of 24 counts. The jury deadlocked on the rest of the counts.
In the second trial, the feds simplified their case and got convictions on 17 of 20 counts.
