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.



Click here for more!



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)

Blogger Breaks Waterboarding Torture Story

If anyone has any lingering suspicion that blogs are taking over the world of journalism, consider this.

It was a blogger who uncovered this week's top story that the CIA used waterboarding more than 266 times on two Al-Queda suspects.

Marcy Wheeler from emptywheel.com discovered that atrocious figure had not been redacted from the memos released by the U.S. Justice Department late last week.

The new information on the number of waterboarding episodes came out over the weekend when a number of bloggers, including Marcy Wheeler of the blog emptywheel, discovered it in the May 30, 2005, memo.

The sentences in the memo containing that information appear to have been redacted from some copies but are visible in others. Initial news reports about the memos in The New York Times and other publications did not include the numbers.

MacArthur Justice Center Attorney Joe Margulies is working to secure the release of Abu Zubaida who endured waterboarding 83 times based on suspicions the government has tacitly conceded were misinformed.

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.

Click here for more!



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)