CHICAGO (AP) – Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys face a midnight deadline for motions regarding the sentence they’d like former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to receive when his case returns to court for a resentencing hearing next month.

Both sides were given until midnight Monday to file their motions in anticipation of the scheduled Aug. 9 hearing before U.S. District Judge James Zagel. The hearing stems from a ruling last year by an appellate court panel that threw out five of the 18 corruption charges for which Blagojevich was convicted in 2011. After that decision, prosecutors decided against retrying Blagojevich on the tossed charges and asked that he be resentenced.

Blagojevich’s attorneys are expected to ask that the sentence be reduced by years.
The resentencing hearing is scheduled for Aug. 9.