Chicago Police commander Lt. Jon Burge finally had his day in court, albeit 25 years too late to protect the 100 mostly African American and Hispanic men who have long claimed they had confessions beaten out of them by an infamous South side Chicago detective squad led by Burge. From the 1970s through to his forced retirement in 1993, Burge led a group of detectives whose actions in obtaining false confessions from defendants in murder and serious crime cases led to long prison terms for most and even death sentences for some of them. A federal jury has now found Burge guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the torgure allegations.
The abuse of suspects was so notorious that former Illinois Governor George Ryan released four men from death row who he believed had their confessions tortured out of them at the hands of Burge and his fellow police officers. Ryan would go on to suspend Illinois”s death penalty and release all prisoners from death row.
According to the testimony of victims at Burge”s trial, police obtained confessions from defendants by applying electric shocks to their genitals, suffocating them, threatening them with loaded guns and burning them on radiators. Burge now faces a long prison term himself after being prosecuted by the Department of Justice for perjury and obstruction of justice for lying in a civil suit against the City brought by Madison Hobley, one of the men sentenced to death as a result of being tortured into confessing to the murder of his wife and son. Hobley was innocent.
But this case is not over for the scores of victims of Burge and the Chicago criminal justice system. And especially not for the 22 people still imprisoned in Illinois who have already served long prison sentences based upon tortured confessions. They include: Tony Anderson, Franklin Burchette, Eric Caine, Javan Deloney, Terry Harris, Leonard Hinton, Edward James, Eric Johnson, Grayland Johnson, Leonard Kidd, James Lewis, Jerry Mahaffey, Reginald Mahaffey, Johnny Plummer, Virgil Robinson, Ivan Smith, Robert Smith, Vincent Wade, Keith Walker, Demond Weston, Jackie Wilson, and Stanley Wrice.
For more, see: JailJonBurge.org