Chicago Jury Acquits Immigrant Accused in Bovino Murder-for-Hire Trial

[demmiblue]

Source: NYT

Prosecutors said a Chicago carpenter had offered a bounty for killing Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official. Defense lawyers said he was just sharing a social media post.

Gregory Bovino, a senior tactical commander for the Border Patrol, has been the swaggering public face of President Trump’s chaotic round of immigration raids across the country. In the wake of an immigration sweep in Chicago last fall that ignited protests all over the city, federal officials accused a local Latino man of offering a bounty on Mr. Bovino’s life.

At the time, Mr. Bovino cited the case as evidence that the situation in American cities was out of control — “something out of a third world country,” he told Fox News. “It’s a war zone out there.”

But on Thursday, a Chicago jury acquitted the man accused of making the threats, the latest setback for the Justice Department, which has faltered in a number of attempts to prosecute cases related to Mr. Trump’s immigration policy.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/us/gregory-bovino-murder-chicago-trial.html

[choie]

1. Heh.

The jury system at work!

[rubbersole]

2. In Minneapolis yesterday Bovino struggled to pull the pin...

..on a smoke grenade that he eventually threw about 20' at noisy bystanders. Upwind. Strutted up the street yelling at pedestrians to move and then humiliated himself and "his men" on viral video. Tough guy. Should be selling above ground pools in downtown Dallas.

[ybbor]

5. Above ground pools don't deserve this...

They’re extremely refreshing and acceptable!

He would be selling my pillows door to door. And sucking at it, too!

[rubbersole]

6. You're right. That was uncalled for.

Above ground pool salesmen have redeeming qualities. Even in Dallas. I hadn't thought about him selling pillows...but I did hear he was a fluffer*.

*Don't Google/Urban Dictionary that if you're a decent person.

[FadedMullet]

3. I would have liked to see jury selection, when the prosecution ran out of challenges and had to accept a few......

.........people of color on the jury. Good times.

[Prairie Gates]

4. Citizen juries are the last nonviolent defense against fascist dictatorship

Most dictatorships emerged in judge-run justice systems. Juries are a stumbling block to fascism.

Very clearly, if our system was purely judge-operated, the judiciary would fall quickly, as it is already doing, in fact. The juries are the less controllable factor.

Watch for discussions to start on the right about the wisdom of jury trials or some method of jury shopping, like moving Minnesota cases to Alabama or the like.

(Notice that this was also the case on the right: juries acquitted numerous right wing agitators like the Bundy's out west and some of the Whitmer kidnap conspirators. There are other examples as well. The fact that most of the January 6 defendants and Trump himself were convicted in jury trials is very telling - they couldn't find a single MAGA to hang the jury, even though there were MAGAs on some of those juries, including Trump's 34 conviction jury!)

[LudwigPastorius]

8. If we don't regain control of Congress I expect there to be an intensive purge of judges who...

show allegiance to the law instead of the Trump party.

Perhaps they would even try to establish an extra-constitutional court system like the Nazi Volksgerichtshof.

[progressoid]

7. Im sure Fox is covering this 24/7