Torture in Illinois goes to Illinois Supreme Court..

[Stuart G]

Long running story...for years...


By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: February 2, 2012 at 8:05 AM ET

Illinois High Court to Rule in Police Torture Case

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: February 2, 2012 at 8:05 AM ET




CHICAGO (AP) — An inmate who says Chicago police officers tortured him into confessing to a brutal rape could learn Thursday whether the Illinois Supreme Court will allow him to present evidence of coercion that was denied at trial, a ruling that could have implications for as many as 20 other inmates seeking similar appeals.

Stanley Wrice, 57, is among dozens of men — almost all of them black — who have claimed since the 1970s that former Chicago Lt John Burge and his officers used torture to secure confessions in crimes ranging from armed robbery to murder. Allegations persisted until the 1990s at police stations Allegations persisted until the 1990s at police stations on the city's South and West sides.

While several of the incarcerated men with torture claims have been released, Wrice's case could have far-reaching impact on how Illinois deals with such cases in the future. Wrice, who is serving a 100-year sentence, insists he's innocent.

Allegations of abuse and torture have plagued the Police Department in the nation's third-largest city for decades and were a factor in former Gov. George Ryan's decision to institute a moratorium on the death penalty in 2000. Gov. Pat Quinn abolished the death penalty in Illinois last year.
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So torture was alive in Illinois, before either Bush was elected. I heard about it in the 80s from students in the high school that
I taught in. Actually, I didn't believe the cops would do these kinds of things. But it is clear that they did, and I was wrong.
Burge was eventually convicted of lieing to a grand jury and is serving for lieing that related to the torture, not the torture itself.
Burge was poitically connected ..well..you know the rest..
The prosecuter who got him on lieing to grand jury was Scott Fitzgerald ..see lower link...



this is link to story above:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/02/02/us/AP-US-Police-Torture.html?ref=us

More info on Jon Burge who was in charge of the torture:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Burge

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[mucifer]

2. This is why they stopped the death penalty in Illinois

They found a lot of torture victims on death row.

[T S Justly]

3. K&R (nt)

[The Magistrate]

4. Good News On The Ruling, Sir

Here is the up-dated first paragraph:

"An inmate who says Chicago police officers tortured him into confessing to a brutal rape can present evidence of coercion that was denied at trial, the Illinois Supreme Court decided Thursday in a ruling that could have implications for as many as 20 other inmates seeking similar appeals."

[Stuart G]

5. Here is a link to the ruling:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-illinois-high-court-to-rule-in-police-torture-case-20120202,0,2643473.story

By Steve Mills

Tribune reporter

9:30 a.m. CST, February 2, 2012
The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday reaffirmed its longstanding opposition to coerced and tortured confessions, upholding a lower court’s decision that said a confession obtained by police torture or other physical abuse must always be thrown out.

The decision, which had anticipated for months by the legal community, came in the case of Stanley Wrice, who was convicted in 1983 of rape but had long alleged that he had been tortured by officers working for the disgraced former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge.

The court’s 6-0 ruling means Wrice will get a hearing in circuit court to determine if his confession was a product of police torture. The decision represents another milestone in the long-running saga of Burge and his crew of officers, who repeatedly have been accused of abusing African-American suspects in the 1970s and 1980s at a South Side police station.