Judge Calls Evidence Against Burge "Staggering"

On a remote corner of the Criminal Courts complex on Chicago's gritty Southwest Side, the word "honor" is etched into the facade of the building where justice is dispensed. It is a relic of a bygone era when public institutions were designed to flaunt a mood of righteous properiety and historic grandeur.

These days, as the County scrounges for operating cash, the word is slighly tarnished by dirt and weathered by time. Its form is dulled, and it's easily overlooked.

Today, however, something happened that restored the honor that had been left to decay within the building. For three decades, scores of African-American men who had been tortured by infamous former Police Commander Jon Burge and his underlings, were sentenced to prison -- and sometimes to death -- for crimes they didn't commit.



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One of those men was Victor Safforld, formerly Cortez Brown. In 1990, three of Burge's subordinates assaulted Safforld with a flashlight, withheld food and water from him and denied him access to a lawyer until he capitulated and falsely confessed to the crime. He was subsequently sentence to death -- which was later commuted to life in prison -- and he lived behind bars for 19 years.

Today, Cook County Circuit Judge Clayton Crane voided Safforld's conviction and ordered a new trial in his case, concluding that the evidence against Burge and his fellow rogue cops was "staggering" and "damning."

Judge Crane's decision represents an important milestone in the effort to repair the corrosion to the integrity of the Cook County criminal justice system that occurred during the years that Burge ran rampant and African-American men were wrongfully imprisoned.

Victor Safforld will have another chance to contest the charges against him, this time in keeping with the U.S. Constitution.

It's likely that after a few more years of acid rain, pollution and grime, that word "Honor" won't be recognizable on the side of the Cook County Criminal Courts building. But today, inside those walls, it was in plain sight.