> September 22, 2006
> www.counterpunch.org
> Maybe I Expected Too Much
> Torture and Justice in Chicago
> By STANLEY HOWARD
> After years of fighting, organizing and exposing the cases of the Death Row 10 and the
> entire Burge torture scandal, we now stand at a major turning point in our movement.
> In 2002, we won the right to have a special prosecutor investigate the issue of police
> torture. I was thrilled with having independent investigators look into this scandal,
> because I was positive it would reveal that fired Chicago police Commander Jon Burge and
> his underlings (who were all white) had systematically tortured over 150 Black criminal
> suspects.
> Finally, after four long years of nail-biting anticipation, Special Prosecutors Edward Egan
> and Robert Bole finally released their report. They found credible evidence of torture, but
> claimed that the statute of limitations had expired on bringing charges.
> The report took everyone by surprise, because it was an obvious attempt to cover up and
> whitewash the role many public officials played in the scandal, including Chicagoís current
> mayor, Richard M. Daley, the top stateís attorney who prosecuted over 55 torture victims.
> The whitewash was immediately recognized by the media, lawyers, activists, community
> leaders and the public, and is being considered a waste of $7 million of taxpayersí money.
> Egan, Boyle and the investigators they hired all have strong ties with the Cook County
> stateís attorneyís office. And it was recently revealed that Egan has nine family members
> who are cops or ex-cops, with a nephew who worked directly under Burge.
> Maybe I expected too much. Did I really expect for the ex-stateís attorney and people with
> ties to the system to tell the world that the system is corrupt, racist and unjust? Did I
> expect for them to bring down so many public officials, including Daley and Devine,
> simply because a bunch of poor Black men were tortured and sent to prison and death
> row?
> What I didnít expect was for them to go far beyond their job description, revealing their
> true motive and bias by emphatically stating, ìNo one was wrongfully convicted based on a
> torture confession.î
> These ex-stateís attorneys did their best to make four members of the Death Row 10
> (Madison Hobley, Leroy Orange, Aaron Patterson and myself) look guilty, even through we
> were pardoned by then-Gov. Ryan on the basis of innocence.
> They tried to accomplish this by highlighting every contradiction in our case, regardless of
> how minor, and by presenting the evidence from a prosecutorís point of viewówithout
> presenting any of the strong evidence pointing towards our innocence.
> Luckily, their bias and attempted whitewash has backfired. It has given to us the kind of
> momentum and support needed to bring those involved to justice and to give justice to
> the incarcerated torture victims who are still serving long prison sentences and life without
> parole.
> Stanley Howard lives in Mount Sterling, Illinois.
> This article originally appeared in The New Abolitionist, the newsletter of the Campaign to
> End the Death Penalty.
> www.counterpunch.org
> Maybe I Expected Too Much
> Torture and Justice in Chicago
> By STANLEY HOWARD
> After years of fighting, organizing and exposing the cases of the Death Row 10 and the
> entire Burge torture scandal, we now stand at a major turning point in our movement.
> In 2002, we won the right to have a special prosecutor investigate the issue of police
> torture. I was thrilled with having independent investigators look into this scandal,
> because I was positive it would reveal that fired Chicago police Commander Jon Burge and
> his underlings (who were all white) had systematically tortured over 150 Black criminal
> suspects.
> Finally, after four long years of nail-biting anticipation, Special Prosecutors Edward Egan
> and Robert Bole finally released their report. They found credible evidence of torture, but
> claimed that the statute of limitations had expired on bringing charges.
> The report took everyone by surprise, because it was an obvious attempt to cover up and
> whitewash the role many public officials played in the scandal, including Chicagoís current
> mayor, Richard M. Daley, the top stateís attorney who prosecuted over 55 torture victims.
> The whitewash was immediately recognized by the media, lawyers, activists, community
> leaders and the public, and is being considered a waste of $7 million of taxpayersí money.
> Egan, Boyle and the investigators they hired all have strong ties with the Cook County
> stateís attorneyís office. And it was recently revealed that Egan has nine family members
> who are cops or ex-cops, with a nephew who worked directly under Burge.
> Maybe I expected too much. Did I really expect for the ex-stateís attorney and people with
> ties to the system to tell the world that the system is corrupt, racist and unjust? Did I
> expect for them to bring down so many public officials, including Daley and Devine,
> simply because a bunch of poor Black men were tortured and sent to prison and death
> row?
> What I didnít expect was for them to go far beyond their job description, revealing their
> true motive and bias by emphatically stating, ìNo one was wrongfully convicted based on a
> torture confession.î
> These ex-stateís attorneys did their best to make four members of the Death Row 10
> (Madison Hobley, Leroy Orange, Aaron Patterson and myself) look guilty, even through we
> were pardoned by then-Gov. Ryan on the basis of innocence.
> They tried to accomplish this by highlighting every contradiction in our case, regardless of
> how minor, and by presenting the evidence from a prosecutorís point of viewówithout
> presenting any of the strong evidence pointing towards our innocence.
> Luckily, their bias and attempted whitewash has backfired. It has given to us the kind of
> momentum and support needed to bring those involved to justice and to give justice to
> the incarcerated torture victims who are still serving long prison sentences and life without
> parole.
> Stanley Howard lives in Mount Sterling, Illinois.
> This article originally appeared in The New Abolitionist, the newsletter of the Campaign to
> End the Death Penalty.