Blago jury request for oath kindles memory of DuPage murder case

Hours before emerging with a verdict after 14 days of deliberations, jurors in former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's corruption trial sparked speculation they were near an end after asking for a copy of the solemn oath they pledged to uphold.

More than two decades ago, DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett found himself playing a similar guessing game when faced with the same jury request in a murder trial of an 11-year-old girl.

Three men eventually were sentenced to lengthy prison terms for the January 1987 sexual assault and strangulation murder of 11-year-old Taneka "Candy" Jones, killed in a Hinsdale-area apartment about a year after her mother moved her from their former Chicago Housing Authority home to escape city violence.

Two of the men were tried together in 1988 with separate juries. The first jury returned within one hour with a guilty verdict. But the jury for defendant Clayton Jordan deadlocked overnight. Members continued deliberating into a third day when they asked the judge to provide them with a typed copy of their oath.

"As it turns out, one of the jurors said she heard a voice or saw a vision in her sleep that told her she could not sit in judgment of her fellow man," said Birkett, who still gets a Christmas card each year from Taneka's mother. "The other jurors were very frustrated, and, after getting a copy of the oath, reminded her she swore to God to do her best to sign a verdict."

Birkett said the jury returned to the courtroom within a half-hour with a signed verdict form - guilty. Jordan later received an 80-year prison term.

Birkett said in his case, as with Blagojevich, such requests by jurors to review their oath usually signals there are holdouts on the jury.

"Someone is saying they don't want to vote. They don't want to sit in judgment of another person," Birkett said. "That's not uncommon. It takes courage to sign a guilty verdict and affect the rest of another person's life."

Jordan, now 39, is eligible for parole in June 2030. His co-defendants, John E. Kines, 52, is due for parole in November 2012, and Saul Berry, 50, will be paroled in December 2022.