Clean house of torture claims
April 4, 2002
At least 66 people claim to have been tortured by
former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge or police officers who were under his
command.
All those making the claims were crime suspects, but there's good reason
to believe most or all are telling the truth. A limited police department
review concluded in 1990 that abuse under Burge was methodical. A federal
judge described widespread torture in the early- to mid-1980s as "common
knowledge."
The alleged torture included suffocation,
burns, electric shocks to the genitals, heads slammed with phone books
and "games" of Russian roulette.
Some of the suspects were released. Some confessed to crimes they had
committed. Some may have confessed to crimes they did not commit--in a
desperate bid to stop the abuse.
No one knows for certain what happened under Burge's command. That's
why it's high time to appoint a special prosecutor to conduct a comprehensive,
independent investigation of torture allegations that have been hanging
over the Chicago Police Department for decades.
This Friday will mark one year since attorneys went to court seeking
a special prosecutor. Cook County Chief Criminal Court Judge Paul Biebel
Jr. has been considering the matter since it was argued before him in November.
Cook County State's Atty. Dick Devine is fighting the measure with gusto.
Of course he is. He has much to lose should a full-blown investigation
substantiate more of those claims.
Devine was first assistant in the state's attorney's office from 1980
to 1983, during which time some of the torture is said to have occurred.
Some of those working for Devine today were closely involved in taking
statements from individuals who allegedly were tortured; others had a hand
in prosecuting them. Any thorough inquiry may put hard-won convictions
in jeopardy, and might implicate some in a conspiracy of silence if they
knew what was occurring inside Burge's interrogation rooms.
Devine once appeared in federal court on behalf of Burge, because the
private law firm Devine joined in 1983 as a partner spent years representing
the commander after he was fired.
Devine, however, casually dismisses those obvious conflicts of interest.
Instead, he is trying to deep-six the appointment of a special prosecutor
with the argument that the statute of limitations on any offenses has expired.
But the full picture of torture has yet to emerge. For years, the alleged
victims had no idea others were making strikingly similar allegations.
It is, as well, premature to say that the time to bring criminal charges
has expired--before the exact details of such offenses have been fully
aired.
It is time to clean house. It is time to figure out whether officers
have been covering up or lying under oath about whether torture occurred.
It is time to determine the exact extent of the torture, which officers
engaged in abuse, how many confessions were unlawfully obtained and, most
important, whether any of those confessions turned out to be false.
Eleven people from whom Burge or his officers extracted confessions
are sitting on Death Row. Others are serving lengthy sentences for murder
convictions. Most, probably, are guilty. A few, though, may have credible
claims of innocence. Meanwhile, Burge, who was fired by the Chicago Police
Board in 1993, is retired and living in Florida.
Judge Biebel should appoint a prosecutor now.
|