Ex-cop faces 30 years over torture of suspects (Chicago)

[Blue_Tires]

CHICAGO — As a decorated Chicago police lieutenant, Jon Burge prided himself on sending bad guys to prison by getting them to confess to terrible crimes — and by committing terrible crimes himself in the process, prosecutors say.

Now, having been convicted of lying about the violent means he and his men used to get confessions, it is Burge's turn to face prison time.

With the sentencing hearing for Burge scheduled to start Thursday, prosecutors say his perjury and obstruction of justice convictions add up to 30-plus years in federal prison.

Defense attorneys are arguing for less than two years for the 63-year-old former commander whose name has become synonymous with police brutality in the nation's third-largest city...............
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Dozens of suspects — almost all of them black men — claimed for decades that Burge and his officers tortured them into confessing to crimes ranging from armed robbery to murder.

Prosecutors presented testimony at trial from five men — Anthony Holmes, Melvin Jones, Andrew Wilson, Gregory Banks and Shadeed Mu'min — who claimed Burge or his men put plastic bags over their heads until they passed out, stuck guns in their mouths or shocked them with electric currents..................................
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The allegations against Burge and his men even helped shape the state's debate over the death penalty.

Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan released four condemned men from death row in 2003 after Ryan said Burge extracted confessions from them using torture.

The allegations of torture and coerced confessions eventually led to a still-standing moratorium on Illinois' death penalty. This month, legislators voted to abolish capital punishment in Illinois. The bill is awaiting the signature of Gov. Pat Quinn.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41169778/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts

[Brewman_Jax]

1. Long overdue

and this bad behavior would end in a hurry the cops knew that they'll be fired and jailed instead of protected and covered for this. Also, another graphic example of the racist caste system; white people would never be targeted like this nor would the system allow it.