As the opening days of the trial for former police Commander Jon Burger are set to begin and protesters gathered
outside the downtown courthouse where it will take place, the Defender talked to one Death Row inmate who says
he was victimized by Burge
As potential jurors in former Chicago police Commander Jon Burge’s perjury case began to be questioned Monday by a federal judge, one of his alleged victims, Stanley Howard, prayed for a new trial and mercy for himself.
A special prosecutor ruled four years ago that Burge and several detectives under his management tortured more than 100 suspects into confessing to crimes by using electric shock, beatings and other odious acts between 1972 and 1991 while in custody at either Area 2 or Area 3.
He was fired from the department in 1993 and indicted in 2008 on perjury and obstruction of justice charges for allegedly lying to special prosecutors during a 2006 investigation by the then-Office of Professional Standards. The statute of limitations for the alleged torture had run out. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Many alleged torture victims were convicted of crimes they said they weren’t involved in. Some had their convictions overturned. Ten were sentenced to death: Howard, Madison Hobley, Aaron Patterson, Ronald Kitchen, Leroy Orange, Leonard Kidd, Andrew Maxwell, Frank Bounds, Reginald Mahaffey and Jeffery Mahaffey.
“I was arrested in March 1983 after two Chicago police officers were murdered. They (Burge detectives) got me to the police station and all hell broke lose. I never thought I would be sitting in an interview room in the middle of the night, forced into signing a confession that sent me to Death Row,” Howard, as he currently sits on Death Row at Dixon Correctional Center, told the Defender during a phone interview.
Howard wanted to make sure his voice was heard while several dozen anti-Burge protestors, including his wife, Michelle Martin, demonstrated outside City Hall on the first day of Burge’s trial. He was slapped and kicked repeatedly in efforts to get a signed confession to a crime he said he didn’t commit. When he didn’t sign on the detectives’ first attempt, a plastic bag was put over his head and he passed out, he said.
“I came to because one of the guys was smacking me trying to wake me up. Then another officer kept kicking me in my left shin, every chance he got,” said Howard, who has been locked up for 26 years. When that didn’t work, he was taken to the scene of the crime and “spoon fed” information about the crime, hoping Howard would give in and confess, he said.
“When they figured out I wasn’t going to confess when the state’s attorney came, one of the officers uncuffed me and told me to run. Then another officer pulled out the gun. I knew then they were willing to kill me to get a confession. They took me back to the police station and I was being suffocated. It was then that I decided to sign the confession. I shouldn’t have done it,” said Howard. Believing in the justice system, he thought he’d get the chance to tell the real story once he stood before a judge, especially since his confession was “bullcrap,” he said.
Howard was sorely disappointed.
“I didn’t know that no Cook County judge wasn’t willing to stand up against that guy (Burge). I was sentenced to Death Row in 1987. I don’t understand why I’m still here. I need a new trial. I need some mercy,” he said.
Attorney Flint Taylor, who does not represent Howard but has represented several other alleged victims, said Burge deserves treatment that his alleged victims didn’t receive.
“The time has come that (sic) Jon Burge gets the fair trial that the 110 victims didn’t get,” Taylor, of the People’s Law Office, told the crowd outside City Hall.
Burge’s trial is expected to last at least six weeks. If convicted, he could face up to 45 years behind bars.á á
áCopyright 2010 Chicago Defender.