The Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Atty. Flint Taylor, exonerated prisoners, family members of police torture victims and other community leaders to encourage prosecution of disgraced police commander Jon Burge; will call on Atty. General Madigan to meet with them, grant evidentiary hearings to Jon Burge's alleged torture victims and work for them to receive new trials.
Friday, July 18, 12 noon
James R. Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph
(PRWEB) July 17, 2008 --
Who: The Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Atty. Flint Taylor, exonerated prisoners, family members of police torture victims and other community leaders.
What: Activists to encourage prosecution of disgraced police commander Jon Burge; will call on Atty. General Madigan to meet with them, grant evidentiary hearings to Jon Burge's alleged torture victims and work for them to receive new trials.
When: Friday, July 18, 12 noon
Where: James R. Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph
(Chicago, IL)--Activists, community leaders and family members of prisoners who say they were tortured into making confessions will rally Friday to mark the two-year anniversary of the release of a report by special prosecutors documenting police torture in Chicago under disgraced former police commander Jon Burge (http://www.nbc5.com/news/9542303/detail.html). The report failed to bring charges against officers who perpetrated acts of torture, but in light of recent revelations that federal prosecutors have subpoenaed a number of detectives to testify in front of a federal grand jury, organizers of the rally are encouraging the federal prosecution of Burge and his detectives. Meanwhile, they point out that Lisa Madigan, who oversees prosecution of the cases of alleged torture victims, has failed to take action despite a Cook County Board resolution last summer urging her to initiate evidentiary hearings for all of Burge's victims. As a graphic reminder of the torture, activists plan to deliver alligator clips attached to pictures of torture victims to Madigan's office. According to the special prosecutors' report, similar clips were connected to an electric generator and hooked up to victims' ears and genitals to electro-shock them into giving confessions.
"Two years after the release of yet another report confirming what we already knew--that Chicago police electro-shocked, beat and suffocated African-American men--it is unconscionable that torture victims have never had a fair day in court while Jon Burge gets to collect a pension in Florida on taxpayer money," said Marlene Martin, National Director of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. "Every day Lisa Madigan sits and does nothing is a day she is furthering a cover-up."
Lisa Madigan was appointed as a special prosecutor to oversee cases involving Burge's detectives in 2002 on the grounds that States Attorney Dick Devine, who had represented Burge in a civil suit, had a conflict of interest. When Madigan campaigned for Illinois Attorney General in 2002, she promised that she would "never cover up the truth and stand in the way of justice." Yet activists claim she has done just that. They say that Madigan has ignored repeated requests for her to meet with them.
"Lisa Madigan could give Burge's victims new hearings today if she wanted to," said Michelle Martin. "We shouldn't have to wait six years for this." Martin is the fiancée of Stanley Howard, who was pardoned by Governor Ryan from death row in 2003 but remains incarcerated on a separate charge, for which he has always maintained his innocence.
Virginia Clements says her son, Mark Clements, was a victim of torture at the age of 16 by officers under Burge. "There are detectives who tortured my child, and he's been wrongfully convicted by the same detectives who tortured him. I want a new trial for my son, and we want justice to be done," she said.
Family members of alleged police torture victims are available for interview.
Contact: Julien Ball, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, 773-209-8476
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