The racketeering retrial of reputed Philadelphia mafia boss Joseph Ligambi and his fellow mobster and nephew George Borgesi has been in the hands of the jury since last Wednesday. The jury notified the court on Monday that they had reached an impasse and had been unable to reach a unanimous verdict. A note was sent to judge Eduardo Robreno from the panel stating that there was no unanimity on any of the charges being considered and that they had voted on two occasions and were now at an impasse. The jury in the first trial deliberated for three weeks but that case involved seven defendants facing 62 counts where as the retrial has only these two defendants facing the remaining five counts. Ligambi is facing a count of racketeering conspiracy along with a count of witness tampering and two counts of illegal gambling. Borgesi is facing only one count of racketeering conspiracy.
“Joseph Ligambi and George Borgesi”
Judge Robreno told the jury of eleven that he would like them to continue working. He said it was a long trial but he wanted them to continue to work toward a verdict before recessing the day. The jury is scheduled to continue deliberations on Tuesday. It is unknown as to how split the jury currently is but the defense has to be optimistic about the fact that there was so far no unanimity on any of the counts against the defendants. Perhaps the blistering case supplied by defense teams against the key witnesses mainly mafia turncoats supplied by the government were effective. They also argued that the entire case was overcharged and amounted to no more then a minor gambling case of unrelated charges and no racketeering enterprises existed.
Edwin Jacobs Jr defense attorney for Ligambi even went as far as saying in closing arguments that the Philadelphia mob no longer existed and called it an impotent shell. He called Ligambi a “titular head” of a criminal organization that was dismantled by the feds a decade ago. While prosecutors argued that Ligambi and his fellow Philly mobsters used the historic reputation of the Philly mob to advance their loansharking and illegal gambling ventures. Seems to still be early on in the process but early signs could signal that the jury is leaning more toward the defenses case.
