Forum/Discussions

 

We are requesting all media to cover the horrific traumatizing fight that torture victims and their families under Jon Burge remain to suffer as they struggle to receive a hearing on their claim of torture. There are mothers and fathers who are suffering, children, released torture victims that remain to suffer from the experience of Burge and his subordinates. Today at 2:00PM Chief Judge Paul Biebel will release his decision whether to grant torture victims hearings on their claim of torture or to reject their request for a hearing on their claim of torture.

 

The Imprisoned torture victims are described as a class of more then 100 men that have been deprived of their Constitutional right to a hearing on their claim of torture. Many had been tried based off of evidence that was not made known during the course of their trials. Judge Biebel have removed most cases from judge’s that were former State’s Attorneys or in elected office as a Judge when former Mayor Richard M. Daley and Richard Devine were the Cook County State’s Attorney’s. We believe that Judge Biebel have made great progress toward providing the men with impartial hearings, but remain critical how the Stanley Wrice case was treated in a game of delays as Daley fought the Subpoena that had been issued against him to testify relevant to his knowledge of tortures under his watch as State’s Attorney. It has been rumored that Daley used political influence to have a judge removed and to have the subpoena quashed.

 

Many of the men were tortured in their genitals, punched, kicked, beat, hit with flashlights, having plastic typewriter covers were placed over their heads, raped with a unknown object, Waterboarding, hanging inmates out of police station windows, called racial slurs by all white detectives, deprived of their parents if they were juveniles. The same few detectives were allowed by judge’s and prosecutors to bounce from court room to the next denying claims of torture and in some cases denying that they were ever accused of police misconduct.

 

 

In 1991 a 15 year old Plummer was taken to area three violent crime unit where he was hit in the face, repeatedly hit in the side with a large flashlight, police made threats against him and deprived him of his parents while interrogated by subordinates of Burge. Plummer was classified as a Burge torture victim however he remain to sit inside a Illinois State prison deprived of a hearing on his claim of torture based off of newly discovered evidence that show Burge and his subordinates tortured criminal suspects to force them to repeat spoon fed confessions. Plummer has been incarcerated for over 23 years while housed at the Menard Correctional Center.

 

Wrice who was released five days ago from the Pontiac Correctional center likewise claim that detectives used a flashlight to torture him. Wrice served 31 year before winning his freedom based off the fact that he had been wrongful convicted and that police and prosecutors concealed favorable evidence that would have avoided the conviction against him.

Gerald Reed is a torture victim that have been incarcerated over twenty years inside IDOC. He suffers from poor medical neglect. Nearly two years ago Reed was granted a hearing on his claim of torture. Today Reed still have not been afforded with that hearing. 

 

 

Torture in the city of Chicago by its police against citizens almost immediately started to surface once Jon Burge Join the police force. Burge join the force in 1970 with the first claim of torture in 1972. Tortures under Burge continued even once he was finally fired by the Chicago Police Board in 1993, by the subordinates of Burge. In a 2006 Cook County Special Prosecutors Report it found that Burge and his subordinates tortured African American and Latino men at area two and three Violent Crime units. Burge nor his subordinates were ever held accountable because the statute of limitation expired on the charge of torture.

 

However Burge was prosecuted under the federal statute for obstruction of justice and perjury for lying in a federal court document about the tortures. In 2010 he was found guilty of those charges and subsequently sentence in 2011 to four and ahalf years. Burge remain to receive his pension even while in prison.

 

Regardless of innocence or guilt in the cases, the men were tortured and deserve a impartial hearing on their claim of torture. Over the past five years we have witness a large percentage of innocent men and women walk out of a prison. We have witness some walking out of prison because of plea agreements. What is certain is that they were all tortured by Burge and his subordinates. Without the aid of attorneys and community leaders and organizations these men would be silent, with most of them serving sentences of natural life. All of them have served 20 or more years inside the Illinois department of corrections. We say enough is enough!

 

There must be accountability toward police, prosecutors and judge’s that openly violate the laws of Cook County citizens. The city of Chicago this year alone have paid over 70 million dollars to settle police related claims of misconduct. Its paid 84 million dollars in the Burge torture scandal. This is “injustice that must go!”.

 

Sincerely:

Mark A. Clements,

Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression

312-039-2750-Office

847-276-1382-Cell Phone Contact up until 12-16-2013/time: 1:15PM

 

*Wallace Bradley, Urban Translator, United in Peace