Former Police Commander Allegedly Oversaw Abuse And Forced Confessions
Burge, who did not react when the verdict was announced, now faces up to 45 years in prison. Sentencing is set for Nov. 5.
Jurors began deliberating late last week. They heard nearly five weeks of testimony from felons who described beatings, suffocations and games of Russian roulette at the hands of Burge and his men. They also heard from Burge, a decorated former officer and Vietnam veteran who repeatedly denied ever participating in physical abuse or witnessing any during his 28 years with the Chicago Police Department.
The trial has hinged not on the alleged abuse, but whether Burge lied about it in court proceedings. He pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of lying in a civil suit when he denied committing or witnessing torture.
"I'm not going to say it's a perfect measure of justice," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said of the verdict. "It's a measure of justice. It's sad it took so long, but it would be horrible if it were never addressed."
In a similar vein, attorney Flint Taylor, who has represented alleged torture victims, called Monday's decision "some modicum of justice." But he argues the torture victims should receive compensation and Burge's alleged accomplices should also be brought to justice.
An emotional Mark Clements, who says he was abused by some of Burge's detectives and imprisoned at age 16 on a false confession of arson, said he was "relieved."
"Finally, at least one of these people are now going to finally feel the pain," he told reporters in the lobby of the U.S. Dirksen Courthouse. "My daughter's 29 years old. I missed all those years with my daughter, sitting in those prison cells for a crime I did not commit. I do not feel sorry for Jon Burge."
Burge was cast as both a calculating torturer who took the law into his own hands and an honorable investigator who dedicated his life to making the streets safer as federal prosecutors and defense attorneys closed their cases Thursday.
For decades, scores of suspects — almost all of them black men — have alleged that Burge and a team of officers tortured them into confessing to crimes from armed robbery to murder. Burge's 2008 indictment marked the first time he was criminally charged in connection with torture claims — something that has created outrage in Chicago's black neighborhoods.
Prosecutors presented testimony from five men who said Burge or his officers shocked, suffocated and beat them into giving confessions. One man testified that Burge removed all the bullets but one from his gun, pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger three times.
Burge's name has become synonymous with police brutality and abuse of power in the country's third-largest city. For decades, dozens of suspects -- almost all of them black men -- claimed Burge and his officers tortured them into confessing to crimes ranging from armed robbery to murder.
Former Ill. Gov. George Ryan released four condemned men from death row in 2003 after Ryan said Burge had extracted confessions from them using torture.
The allegations of torture and coerced confessions eventually led to a still-standing moratorium on Illinois' death penalty and the emptying of death row -- moves credited with re-igniting the global fight against capital punishment.
But they also earned Chicago a reputation as a haven for rogue cops, a place where police could abuse suspects without notice or punishment.
While Burge was fired from the police department in 1993 over the alleged mistreatment of a suspect, he never was criminally charged in that case or any other, a situation that created widespread outrage in Chicago's black neighborhoods. The community anger intensified when Burge moved to Florida on his police pension and his alleged victims remained in prison.
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley was Cook County state's attorney when many of the Burge-related cases were under investigation and in court. City Law Department spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyle said Monday that Daley had given a sworn statement to the special prosecutors before they issued a report in 2006. The report found dozens of men had credible claims of abuse but that the statute of limitations had run out on any relevant crimes
Daley hasn't been charged with any wrongdoing.
"I was very proud of my role as prosecutor, I was not the mayor, I was not the police chief, I did not promote this man in the 80s, so let's put everything into perspective," the mayor said.
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