An appeals court has ordered a third trial for a man charged with stomping another man to death on a South Side L platform more than a decade ago.
Anthony Jackson has twice been found guilty of the 2013 murder of Sanchez Mixon, a killing that was captured on surveillance video and witnessed by horrified onlookers.
But the first verdict was overturned after his brother, George Jackson III, a former federal prosecutor, argued that Jackson’s lead lawyer had missed key evidence that might have helped Jackson’s claim that he killed Mixon in self-defense.
But in the years leading up to Jackson’s second trial, his older brother became increasingly erratic, ending with a second guilty verdict in 2021 and George Jackson facing a suspension of his law license.
Anthony Jackson was sentenced to 25 years in prison after his second trial.
Late last month, Appellate Justice Michael Hyman ordered a third trial, ruling that the case was “replete with examples of rude and bullying behavior [by George Jackson] directed primarily at the trial judge and prosecuting attorneys.”
A spokeswoman for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx did not immediately respond when asked if the prosecution would appeal the ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court.
During the years he has represented his brother, four judges have held George Jackson in contempt of court. For a time, George Jackson was barred from the Leighton Criminal Courthouse after he sent the assistant state’s attorney prosecuting the case a poinsettia with a flirtatious note.
Even after George Jackson was allowed to enter the courthouse while accompanied by sheriff’s officers, he was often late or failed to show up for hearings.
Jackson also filed rambling motions containing racially insensitive language and bizarre imagery, including one brief that described a fictional rape perpetrated by a character he named “Meatman.”
He also claimed that prosecutors and judges were conspiring against him.
Based on his remarks in the courtroom and in filings in his brother’s case, the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission in September recommended that George Jackson be suspended from acting as a lawyer for three years.
The agency cited “egregious misconduct and aggravating factors including (Jackson’s) insistence that his conduct was justified and lack of recognition of the harmful impact of his words.”
Lawrence Beaumont, the lawyer who represented Jackson in the disciplinary hearing, said a final ruling on the suspension is pending from the state Supreme Court.
Beaumont declined comment on the appellate ruling.
After the guilty verdict in the second trial, George Jackson quit the case. Assistant Public Defender Marijane Placek, who took over, filed a motion for a new trial based on ineffective counsel by George Jackson.
Now represented by the Illinois Office of the Appellate Defender, Anthony Jackson claimed his brother made numerous errors at trial by refusing to enter evidence, including Mixon’s criminal record and purportedly violent statements Mixon made before the fatal attack on the northbound side of the 43rd Street Green Line platform.
The appeals court noted how, near the close of the second trial, Anthony Jackson was asked by the judge to affirm that he would not take the witness stand.
George Jackson volunteered to the court that he’d told his brother he would quit the case if Anthony testified, according to a transcript cited in the order.
“I said I have an obligation to share this with the court,” George Jackson told the judge. “We did have a discussion, a very spirited discussion in back regarding whether he would testify. And I told him, look, if you testify, it won’t be with me as your attorney. So whether that amounts to a threat—”
“No, no, no, no,” the judge interjected. “ Mr. Jackson, that’s improper. He has a right to testify. If your client chooses to testify, that you are his lawyer, okay.”
