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Thread: Illinois Capital Punishment News

  1. #51
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Disgraced ex-Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge, accused of presiding over decades of brutality and torture, has died

    By Rosemary Sobol, Jeremy Gorner and David Heinzmann
    The Chicago Tribune

    Jon Burge, the disgraced Chicago police commander and felon whose sordid legacy of torture and other misconduct exacted an agonizing price from the city, has died in Florida at age 70, according to police union officials and a Florida funeral home.

    Details about his death were scarce as the union and family members declined to speak with members of the news media, which spent years reporting on the numerous cases in which Burge was accused of torturing suspects in order to obtain confessions.

    Representatives of Zipperer Funeral Home in Ruskin, Fla., confirmed receiving Burge’s body but declined to share any further information, citing the family’s wishes. Burge, who had previously been treated for cancer, lived in nearby Apollo Beach.

    “They (family members) let us know they’re not doing anything in any newspapers,’’ said Sarah Zipperer.

    Stories of the violence committed under Burge — including beatings, electric shock, suffocation with typewriter covers and games of Russian roulette — proved to have a long reach. Although most of Burge’s alleged misconduct took place in the 1970s and ’80s, his accusers played a fundamental role in former Gov. George Ryan’s decision to vacate Illinois’ death row in 2000 and declare a moratorium on capital punishment in the state.

    Lawsuits from Burge’s victims, meanwhile, have cost taxpayers many millions in settlements and judgments, much of it paid out of city coffers in the past decade.

    Burge himself never was charged directly in any of the torture allegations, though he was fired from the Chicago Police Department in 1993. Years later, in 2010, he was convicted of lying to federal authorities about his conduct and sentenced to prison. He was released in 2014 and returned to his waterfront home south of Tampa.

    News of Burge’s death began to surface publicly Wednesday at the trial of Officer Jason Van Dyke, charged with murder after he shot a Chicago teenager 16 times.

    The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was in the courthouse to observe the trial, said Burge left a stain on the city.

    “As a person, may his soul rest in peace,” Jackson said. “As a policeman, he did a lot of harm to a lot of people and left on this city a mark. It stains us for a long time. His legacy, unfortunately, is tied in with forced confessions and wrongful convictions.”

    Current police and city officials were silent on the passing of Burge, but police union officials, past and present, offered support.

    Dean Angelo, former head of the Fraternal Order of Police in Chicago, told reporters during a break in the Van Dyke trial that he had gotten word of Burge’s death and “it came as kind of a shock.” The police union posted condolences on social media along with a message asserting that the “full story” about Burge has never been told.

    Jon Burge put a lot of bad guys in prison that belonged … in prison,” Angelo said in the lobby of the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

    “People picked a career apart that was considered for a long time to be an honorable career and a very effective career. I don’t know that Jon Burge got a fair shake based on the years and years of service that he gave the city. But we’ll have to wait and see how that eventually plays out in history.”

    Diverging assessments of Burge’s legacy have been a lightning rod that further polarized the long-tense relationship between the mostly white Chicago Police Department and the black and brown communities it patrols. Burge’s conduct and the subsequent department cover-ups are a seminal scandal in that history.

    By tolerating and supporting Burge’s behavior for years, the department affirmed a police culture in which the mistreatment of black men was acceptable, critics say. That issue has never been more prominent than at the trial of Van Dyke, whose 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald might have gone unexamined if a judge had not ordered the release of video showing that police had misrepresented the facts of how his killing took place.

    Among the first journalists to pay serious attention to the Burge allegations, former Chicago Reader reporter John Conroy, said Wednesday that Burge “couldn’t have done what he did without supervisors looking the other way.”

    Burge was a talented investigator whose worse instincts were allowed to run amok in a corrupt system, said Conroy, now senior investigator at the MacArthur Justice Center.

    “What’s overlooked in all of this is that Burge was ambitious and a leader of men, and if the first time he’d gone astray and beaten somebody up, if somebody had pulled him aside … Jon Burge wouldn’t have become the abhorrent figure he did,” Conroy said. “It comes back to a lack of supervision.”

    The widespread impact of the allegations against Burge included questions about the conduct of former Mayor Richard M. Daley, who was Cook County state’s attorney in the 1980s when much of the alleged torture took place, and former State’s Attorney Richard Devine, whose office opposed inmates’ allegations of torture.

    A Vietnam War veteran, Burge joined the Police Department in 1970. He worked as a detective and in supervisory jobs at Calumet Area headquarters through the mid-1980s, but allegations of torture surfaced early.

    In 1973, Anthony Holmes alleged that he was electric-shocked and “bagged” after his arrest for murder, according to G. Flint Taylor, a civil rights lawyer who represented several Burge victims. Holmes, who was paroled after spending 33 years in prison, has maintained his innocence.

    Much of the scandal surrounding Burge grew out of brutal crimes. Andrew Wilson alleged he was tortured after his arrest — with his brother Jackie Wilson — for the murder of two Chicago police officers in 1982.

    Madison Hobley made similar allegations after he was charged in a 1987 arson that killed his wife, young child and five others. Hobley was sentenced to death row before being pardoned and freed by Ryan.

    In all, Burge and detectives under his command were alleged to have tortured and abused more than 100 suspects in the 1970s and ’80s.

    Burge was suspended in 1991 and fired in 1993 by the Chicago Police Board for the torture of Andrew Wilson. Thirteen years later, special Cook County prosecutors found evidence of widespread abuse by Burge and detectives under his command but concluded that the statute of limitations on criminal charges had passed.

    In 2008 he was arrested in Florida after being indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for denying involvement in torture in his written answers in a 2003 lawsuit.

    In one example, Burge was asked to “state whether you have ever used methods, procedures or techniques involving any form of verbal or physical coercion of suspects while in detention or during interrogation, such as deprivation of sleep, quiet, food, drink, bathroom facilities, or contact with legal counsel and/or family members; the use of verbal and/or physical threats or intimidation, physical beatings, or hangings; the use of racial slurs or profanity; the use of physical restraints, such as handcuffs; the use of photographs or polygraph testing; and the use of physical objects to inflict pain, suffering or fear, such as firearms, telephone books, typewriter covers, radiators, or machines that deliver an electric shock.”

    He answered: “… I have never used any techniques set forth above as a means of improper coercion of suspects while in detention or during interrogation.”

    At his 2010 trial, a number of former convicts testified that Burge had used cattle prods on their genitals, suffocated them with plastic and beaten them with phone books.

    Burge testified in his defense, denying in court that he ever tortured suspects or condoned torture. He said he had never witnessed a cop abusing a suspect in his 30 years with the department. He was convicted and served time in a North Carolina prison.

    Despite costing the city tens of millions of dollars in legal expenses because of lawsuits related to the torture and abuse, Burge continued collecting a $4,000-a-month police pension. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed suit to challenge the decision, but the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that she did not have standing to take up the matter.

    At last count, the city and Cook County have spent nearly $100 million combined on Burge-related settlements and legal fees.

    In 2013, Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued an unexpected public apology for the damage Burge did to the city, calling the era a “dark chapter” that needed to be put in the past. In 2015, a reparations settlement with some Burge victims mandated that Chicago Public Schools teach eighth-graders and high school sophomores about Burge’s crimes. The curriculum went into effect in 2017.

    Burge’s cases were most recently in the news when a Cook County judge in June ordered the release of Jackie Wilson after deciding that his confession in the 1982 murder of the two police officers had been physically coerced by detectives under Burge’s command. It was Wilson’s brother, Andrew Wilson, whose allegations of torture first drew attention to Burge in the late 1980s. Andrew Wilson died in prison in 2007.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...919-story.html

  2. #52
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Rep. Severin files bill to reinstate death penalty for murder of law enforcement officers

    State Rep. Dave Severin (R-Benton) has filed House Bill 4746 that would reinstate the option for juries to select the death penalty as punishment for the 1st-degree murder of law enforcement officers.

    Rep. Severin says he has seen enough violence against police officers and is calling for enhanced measures aimed at deterring crime.

    “In 2021, 76 police officers in the city of Chicago were either shot or shot at. Recently, we sadly lost a Wayne County Sheriff’s Deputy and a village of Bradley, Illinois police officer to murderous criminals,” Severin said. “The people of Illinois are living in a ridiculous and unacceptable new normal where our police officers are being targeted by violent criminals at alarming rates. It is past time we reinstate the death penalty for criminals murdering our police officers. Criminals need to know that severe consequences await them if they take up arms against our police officers. Reinstating the option for juries to impose the death penalty on cop killers is just one way to demonstrate we're serious about changing the direction of criminal justice in this state.

    Democrats need to get on board and help us pass this urgent and necessary legislation."

    Rep. Severin's legislation restores the death penalty for the 1st-degree murder of a peace officer killed while performing his or her official duties, to prevent the performance of his or her official duties, or in retaliation for performing his or her official duties, and the defendant knew or should have known that the murdered individual was a peace officer.

    This comes after multiple police officers in Illinois have been killed over the last month. This includes Wayne County Deputy Sean Riley, Bradley Sergeant Marlene Rittmanic, and off-duty ISP Trooper Antonio Alvarez, who was found shot to death Monday.

    (source: WSIL TV news)
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #53
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Illinois lawmaker moves to bring back the death penalty

    By John Clark
    WTVO

    SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois could reinstate the death penalty if a new package of public safety legislation is passed in the General Assembly.

    State Rep. John Cabello (R-Machesney Park) filed a set of new bills, one of which would reinstate the death penalty in Illinois.

    If passed, the death penalty would be allowed if a police officer or fireman is killed in the line of duty; a person is convicted of murdering two or more people; the victim of a murder is under the age of 12; or if the murder takes place at a religious institution.

    Illinois reinstated capital punishment in 1974, but it was abolished in 2011 — in a bill sponsored by now-Attorney General Kwame Raoul, then a state senator — by former Gov. Pat Quinn, following a moratorium placed on the death penalty by former Gov. George Ryan in 2000. Twelve people were executed by the state between 1976 and 1999 when the final execution was carried out.

    Cabello’s public safety package of bills would also repeal the SAFE-T Act, which eliminates cash bail.

    “As a law enforcement officer, I believe that this package will make a meaningful difference in the lives of those who serve and protect our communities, and I am proud to have filed it,” Cabello said in a statement.

    Also included in the legislation are provisions for municipalities to provide health insurance to police and fire personnel after their retirement.

    “The safety of our communities is of the utmost importance, and this legislation is aimed at ensuring that our law enforcement officers and firefighters have the support they need to carry out their duties and keep our communities safe,” said Cabello.

    https://www.mystateline.com/news/loc...h-penalty/amp/
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  4. #54
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    The murder rate in Chicago can calculate 90% of the state of Illinois lead by a democrat-run Governor. The bill will support a whole bunch of issues including the death penalty for child and cop killers. This should be nationwide regardless of red or blue states. However, the bill if passed, will reconvene death row prisoners at a large rate year on year.
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

    "When we get fruit, we get the juice and water. I ferment for a week! It tastes like chalk, it's nasty" - Blaine Keith Milam #999558 Texas Death Row

  5. #55
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Imo gang related murders should be eligible for the Death Penalty if this was to somehow pass.
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  6. #56
    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
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    Waste of time

  7. #57
    Senior Member CnCP Addict maybeacomedian's Avatar
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    Wont's pass, unfortunately

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