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.

Burge Won't Appear at Hearing for Torture Victim

A Florida judge refused to subpoena former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge requiring his appearance at a hearing for torture victim Cortez Brown who was forced to confess to two murders he did not commit. The judge argued that the subpoena was essentially pointless as Burge would no doubt take the 5th Amendment at the hearing.

Previously, Cook County Judge Clayton Crane ruled that Burge was a matieral witness in Brown's wrongful conviction case and requested that the Florida judge issue a subpoena.

While Jon Burge won't appear at at hearing scheduled for Monday, May 18, the three detectives who directly worked for Burge and took part in the savage beatings--John O'Brien, John Paladino and Tony Maslanka--will be questioned by Locke Bowman, attorney for Brown and Legal Director of the Roderick MacArthur Justice Center.

Judge: Burge Can Be Subpoenaed in Torture Case

Yesterday, Judge Clayton Crane surprised a Cook County courtroom by paving the way for former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge to testify about the beating inflicted on Cortez Brown during a 1990 murder investigation. This would mark the first time in more than a decade that the embattled Burge would appear in open court.

Locke Bowman, Legal Director of the Roderick MacArthur Justice Center and attorney for Cortez Brown, will now seek supoenas for Burge and former Detective Tony Maslanka in their home states so they can testify at an upcoming hearing on Brown's wrongful conviction.



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In 1990, Brown was arrested for the murders of Devin Boelter and Curtis Sims. Brown alleges that Area 3 police detectives John O’Brien, John Paladino and Tony Maslanka—all of whom worked directly under Burge –verbally threatened him and beat him repeatedly with fists and a flashlight until he agreed to submit a bogus confession to the crimes.

At trials for both murders, Brown’s coerced confessions were the principal evidence used to tie him to the alleged crimes. And in both cases, the larger pattern of atrocities that Burge inflicted on other black suspects was not revealed. Burge is currently under federal indictment for perjury and obstruction of justice based on his sworn denials that suspects were abused and tortured. Brown finished serving the 30 year sentence imposed on him for one of the murders, but seeks release from his natural life sentence for the second.

(photo from Huffingtonpost.com)

Torture New and Old: Abu Ghraib & Jon Burge

Anyone shocked by today's top story, must not have read Wednesday's paper. Unfortunately, the "dark and painful" disclosures of clandestine memos authorizing U.S. officials to torture terrorism suspects seemed uncomfortable reminiscent of the atrocities inflicted on African-Americans by former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge.

The traumatic legacy of the Burge torture spree will resurface again on April 29th when a Cook County Court is expected to rule on a motion lawyers for Cortez Brown have filed seeking to compel Burge to testify about his misconduct. Burge oversaw the police detectives who beat Brown with a flashlight until he falsely confessed to murders he didn't commit. Brown is represented by the MacArthur Justice Center, affiliated with Northwestern University School of Law.

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Seventeen years later, Brown remains in prison, along with more than 20 other men wrongfully convicted due to spurious confessions extracted through torture.

President Obama has already closed the shadowy offshore prisons where the CIA abused terrorism suspects. Now it's up to Cook County Courts to atone for gross abuses of justice that took place in our own backyard.

(Image via Ron Paul Forums)