Jurors accused of using ‘N-word’ during deliberations in Black Souls trial

The jury that handed down a guilty verdict against six alleged leaders of the Black Souls street gang may have been tainted by a racially charged arguments among jurors, defense lawyers said in a motion filed Thursday.

The final days of the two-month-long racketeering trial seemed fairly chaotic from outside the courtroom, with Cook County Judge Michael McHale dismissing five jurors in a matter of hours after two days deliberations.

Lawyers for the six defendants say one of the jurors claims there was “a lot of racism going on back there” and that several jury members — who were pushing for a guilty verdict — used racial slurs against holdouts favoring acquittals, according to the joint motion by the defense team.

“‘There was a lot of racism going on back there,’” the female juror said, according to the motion. Juror No. 38 also claims that an unknown number of jurors who were voting to convict called holdouts the “n-word.” Jurors at the time had been split at 9-3 in favor of a guilty verdict. If a jury can’t eventually reach a unanimous verdict, a mistrial is declared.

It was unclear from the motion whether Juror No. 38 was among the five jurors who were dismissed.

On Friday, McHale described the juror as Juror No. 40 – not 38.

The defense team learned of the racial strife after Shiri Davis, sister of defendant Antwan Davis, reached out to State Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, who told her that he had been contacted by a member of the jury. With the name provided by Ford, Shiri Davis contacted the juror on Facebook and asked if she wanted to talk, the motion states.

Deliberations were interrupted several times by queries raised in notes to the judge. The first note – signed by two jurors – said that one of other jury members had admitted that her father and brothers were members of the Black Souls; that one juror had said he was “only here to send a message,” and that still another had been “racial bullying and has shown male chauvinism.”

The juror whose relatives were gang members was dismissed, as was the juror accused of bullying. The juror who “wanted to send a message” denied making the statement, remained on the jury — and eventually became foreman.

Hours later, McHale dismissed a juror who had collapsed and left the courthouse in an ambulance. Within the hour, the judge returned to the courtroom with another note, in which two jurors had questions about jury instructions — and dismissed them both.

Two days after deliberations resumed with five alternate jurors, the jury handed down a guilty verdict on all counts.

The motion filed Thursday asks for permission to question Juror No. 40, to get more information.

A previously scheduled hearing on motions for a new trial is set for Friday.

The case was the first in Cook County to test state racketeering laws intended to target gangs, and took four years to reach trial.

Prosecutors said the gang, headed by Cornel Dawson, controlled a six-square-block area of the West Side, selling cocaine and heroin.

In addition to Dawson and Davis, the jury convicted, Clifton Lemon Teron Odum, Ulysses Polk and Duavon Spears.

Dawson and five men alleged to be his top lieutenants in the gang are the only defendants to stand trial among 23 Black Souls and associates indicted in 2013, the culmination of a months-long investigation of the gang by Chicago Police and the FBI.

The probe was dubbed “Operation .40-Caliber,” a reference to the caliber of bullets used by Spears to execute police informant Claude Snulligan in 2012.