No decision in hearing for convicted killer

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By J.C. Taylor | Wednesday, July 16, 2008 12:42 AM CDT | () comments

ALEDO, Ill. — Convicted murderer Janet Jackson returned to Mercer County on Tuesday afternoon for a 15-minute hearing.

The former Rock Island woman appeared before Mercer County Circuit Judge James Conway after being transported from Dwight Correctional Center in eastern Illinois.

Jackson wants her life prison sentence reconsidered. No decision was made Tuesday, as more post-conviction motions are expected to be filed, and no new hearing date was scheduled.

She is represented by East Moline attorney Hany Khoury. The Mercer County state’s attorney’s office remains opposed to an early release for Jackson.

Jackson was sentenced to life in prison for planning the Nov. 23, 1986, fatal attack on her estranged husband, Kim Wayne Jackson, 35, at a rural Viola farmhouse. She was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, armed robbery and solicitation to commit murder during a May 1987 jury trial.

She won a brief reprieve in March 2002 when her life sentence was reduced to a term of 40 years by the 3rd District Appellate Court. But in October 2003, the appellate court reversed its decision and reinstated her original life sentence after a challenge from Mercer County State’s Attorney

Greg McHugh.

Jackson has also petitioned for executive clemency several times, but has been rejected in each attempt.

Investigators testified in her 1987 trial that she induced Tony Royark, now 48, and Michael Miller to kill Kim Wayne Jackson. She lured him to the Mercer County farmhouse they owned by claiming she was ready to reconcile their failing marriage. Once there, he was beaten to death with a metal pipe.

Police said Kim Jackson’s wallet was taken during the crime to make it look like a home invasion and robbery had occurred, and Janet Jackson was beaten to make it appear robbers had attacked her. The motive was to collect on her husband’s life insurance policy, according to testimony at Jackson’s trial.

Royark also is serving life in prison for first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and armed robbery convictions for his role in the Jackson slaying.

Miller, who was 16 at the time of the crime, was sentenced to 17 years in prison on conspiracy and attempted murder charges. He was paroled in 1995.

Both Jacksons were employed at the Rock Island post office before the homicide.

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