Defend American Ideals of Justice!

The use of torture has found its way into public discourse largely surrounding U.S. interrogation techniques in the War on Terror. However, there are abuses carried out by local law enforcement that are tantamount to TORTURE or CRUEL, INHUMAN, and DEGRADING treatment or punishment. 

A group of police officers engaged in routine torture of suspects in Chicago police stations in the 1970s and 80s using methods such as electric shock, burning, simulated executions, and suffocation.  All of the victims so-far identified, approximately 200 of them, are African American men.  Despite the investigation of Chicago police misconduct by a special prosecutor and the recent arrest of former Police Commander Jon Burge, many continue to languish in prison as a result of their coerced confessions.

Do your part to defend truth, justice, and human rights. Join us in calling on Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to grant new hearings for the Burge torture victims still behind bars.

Dear Attorney General Lisa Madigan:

I am proud that our U.S. justice system guarantees due process and the right to a fair hearing. But those values are put in danger when 25 known Chicago Police torture victims remain wrongfully convicted and incarcerated in Illinois prisons.

It is well known that over 100 African American men were tortured by former Police Commander Jon Burge or detectives under his command at Chicago Police Headquarters. Officers engaged in torture to extract confessions which were then used to wrongfully convict these men.

It violates state, federal, and international laws to use a tortured confession against a person in a legal proceeding. Please comply with Article 15 of the U.N. Convention Against Torture and grant these men new evidentiary hearings. Not doing so goes against American ideals of truth and justice.

Sincerely,