Committee on Public Safety City Council Meeting May 23, 2022
ORDER
WHEREAS, During the 1980's and 1990's, a series of allegations of coerced confessions resulting from torture techniques by Chicago Police Detectives under the command of Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge had been made; and,
WHEREAS, Burge was suspended from the Chicago Police Department in 1991 and fired in 1993 after the Police Department Review Board ruled that he had in fact used torture techniques against detainees; and,
WHEREAS, A four-year investigation by Edward J. Egan, Special States Attorney concluded, "While not all the officers named by all the claimants were guilty of prisoner abuse; it is our judgment that the commander of the Violent Crimes section of Detective Areas 2 and 3, Jon Burge, was guilty of such abuse. It necessarily follows that a number of those serving under his command recognized that, if their commander could abuse persons with impunity, so could they;" and,
WHEREAS, In response, the Illinois Legislature created the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission in 2009; and,
WHEREAS, the Illinois Department of Corrections inmates Mr. Harvey Allen, Mr. George Anderson, Mr. Javon Deloney, Mr. Darryl Fair, Mr. Jerome Johnson, Mr. Raymond Lee, Mr. James Lenoir, Mr. John Mitchell, Mr. Abdul Muhammad, Mr. Kevin Murray, Mr. Maurice Pledger, Mr. Clayborn Smith and Mr. Ivan Smith filed claims of torture with The Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission related to their homicide convictions and the Commission reported there was sufficient credible evidence of torture used against each of them and they remain incarcerated; and,
WHEREAS, In addition to The Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission reporting that there was sufficient credible evidence of torture used against Mr. George
Anderson, Mr. Javon Deloney, Mr. Jerome Johnson, and Mr. James Lenoir, each have a claim of actual innocence; and,
WHEREAS, according to the National Registry of Exonerations since 1989 there hav...
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