It's sort of tough to call a guy serving 21 years in prison " lucky."
But at least for one day, city contractor Bobby Ferguson had a little luck.
On Friday, a federal jury found him not guilty on two charges of being a felon in possession of a gun, court records show. The jury deadlocked on a third gun charge and mistrial was declared for that charge. The prosecution failed convince jurors that the guns belonged to Ferguson.
A conviction could have added 10 years to the 21 year sentence he received in October after being convicted on public corruption charges in the Kwame Kilpatrick trial, the Detroit Free Press reported.
It was the second time the government had unsuccessfully taken a shot at Ferguson in the case.
The first one resulted in a hung jury. That case included charges that Ferguson rigged a lucrative bid for work in the city of Detroit and charges of illegal dumping.
To simplify the case this time -- and because Ferguson is already serving 21 years and other defendants in the case had pleaded guilty -- the government dropped the corruption charges and tried to convict him on a felon in possession of guns.
The government could conceivably go after Ferguson again on the one count in which the jury deadlocked.
However, the odds of that happening aren't very high.
The government is likely to conclude that it's not worth pursuing.
