It took a jury more than two weeks of deliberations to settle on judgments in the federal case charging former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick with running a criminal enterprise out of City Hall. After months of trial, the eight women and four men were responsible for determining his guilt on 30 charges, as well as charges levied at Kilpatrick's contractor friend Bobby Ferguson and the ex-mayor's father, Bernard Kilpatrick.
On Monday, they announced their decision, which will likely put Kilpatrick behind bars for years. He was convicted on 24 counts, including racketeering, extortion, attempted extortion, bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and filing false tax returns. Ferguson was found guilty on nine charges, and the two of them were remanded to jail without bail Monday afternoon.
Corruption and scandal -- be it the latest money-laundering charges, skipping out on court-ordered community service, an alleged atmosphere of "pay to play" in his administration or committing perjury after lying about an affair with his chief of staff -- have reduced Kilpatrick's legacy to tatters since he left office in 2008.
Current Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has been adamant abut his desire to clean up City Hall, but, as Stephen Henderson points out in the Detroit Free Press, corruption has a much longer history in Detroit. Will Kilpatrick's conviction actually cause change in the city and send a clear message that there's a new way of doing business?
Watch the HuffPost Live segment above discussing the impact of Kilpatrick's conviction for Detroit, and then take our poll.
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