The Chicago City Council approved a $20 million settlement on Jan.18 for four African American men who were tortured by police under former Commander John Burge and together spent 64 years on Illinois’ death row.In January 2003, the four men – Aaron Patterson, Leroy Orange, Stanley Howard, and Madison Hobey – were granted pardons by former Governor George Ryan based on evidence of innocence.

Patterson received $5 million for the 17 years he spent on death row, but is still fighting a new federal conviction on drug and gun charges. Howard, who spent 15 years waiting for execution, was granted $1.8 million but will give up $1 million in legal fees while fighting a separate rape conviction.

Hobey was awarded $7.5 million for the 13 years he served on death row. However, he has to wait until 2009 to receive $6 million of it pending his not being indicted by federal prosecutors for the same crime he was pardoned for by Ryan. Orange was awarded $5.5 million for 19 years on death row.

“The government needs to deal with the effects of what they have done, but it’s incredibly irresponsible to say that money is going to fix this,” said senior Heather Siegel, a political science major.

The four men, who were strangers before convicted, testified separately that they falsely confessed to crimes after Chicago police suffocated them with either plastic bags or bare hands. Orange reported he was also electro-shocked, squeezed by his scrotum, and held for 12 hours before falsely confessing. Howard reported that he was held incommunicado in an interrogation room for 43 hours, as well.

“These four cases . are just the tip of the iceberg really,” said John Conroy, a former journalist for the Chicago Reader to Democracy Now on Dec. 13, 2007. “There were more than a hundred men who were tortured using electric shock . some were suffocated. Some hung by handcuffs. Some were subjected to severe beatings.”

Despite these allegations, the City of Chicago fought against settling the recent civil suit. Former Commander Burge, who authorized most of the torturing, is retired and living in Florida. Burge collects a full police pension while the city continues to pay his legal fees. No other police officer has been fired or prosecuted in connection with the torture allegations.

“There is a consistent pattern,” Conroy said. “(The) same officers appearing in different cases, telling the same story that they didn’t do this thing that they’re accused of.”

Since the most recent victim was tortured in 1987, the cases are over 20 years old. Neither current Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley nor Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan have agreed to an evidentiary hearing into the claims of 26 other torture victims on death row who remain imprisoned but received diminished sentences in 2003 by Gov. Ryan.

“Is that retribution enough?” asked senior Gabby Levine, a political science major with a concentration in criminal justice.
Despite the minor victory won by the four victims, Mayor Daley, who served as Cook County State’s Attorney from 1980 to 1989, insisted in a public address that “this tragic chapter in our city’s history is closed.”

“They need to adjust the systematic flaws so that it doesn’t happen in general,” said Siegel.

In December, USA Today released U.S. Department of Justice statistics that indicated prosecutions for the use of excessive force or other violations of victims’ civil rights had risen 25 percent nationally in 2001-2007 compared to the previous seven-year period.