In August 1991, Johnny Plummer was allegedly taken to Area 3 Police Headquarters and tortured into confessing to a murder he did not commit by notorious Chicago Police Detectives Michael Kill and Kenneth Boudreau.
Today, at an evidentiary hearing on Mr. Plummer’s petition for post-conviction relief, his attorneys will continue to question Boudreau, who worked as a detective under notorious torture cop Jon Burge. Boudreau failed to appear in court to testify at Plummer’s previous court date on August 6, which has further delayed the proceedings of the case.
Johnny Plummer was just 15 years old when he was taken into custody in connection with a murder he maintains he had nothing to do with. In a brutal interrogation, Plummer said Michael Kill beat him with his fists and with a flashlight on his face, sides and head, until the 15-year-old agreed to sign a confession.
Michael Kill has been named in 28 other cases of police torture or wrongful conviction that CAARPR is aware of. Also involved in Plummer’s conviction was former detective Kenneth Boudreau, who has been tied to 70 claims of wrongful conviction that CAARPR is aware of, and has cost Chicago taxpayers millions of dollars in misconduct settlements and pension payments.
During examination of Kenneth Boudreau by Plummer’s lawyers on May 26, Kenneth Boudreau was shown photos of the Area 3 Violent Crimes building that he led in the 1990s. The first of the photos depicted a holding cell called “the cage” with what appear to be Black mannequin heads with dreadlocks hanging from the wire fencing. Another photo showed two black hands in handcuffs with the phrase, “Another happy ending” written beneath them. When asked about the photos by Plummer’s attorney, Boudreau responded that they could have been “dark humor.”
Plummer’s mother, Jeanette Plummer, had been a vocal advocate for her son and all survivors of wrongful conviction and police crimes until her passing in May. In a statement honoring her, CAARPR Field Organizer Frank Chapman described her legacy in the fight to stop police crimes in Chicago:
“When we first kicked off the CPAC campaign–that is the struggle against police crimes and to create an all elected, all civilian police accountability council–Jeanette Plummer was right there with us in Englewood, telling the Alliance and all of our allies who gathered together on that day (July 12th, 2012) to have a people’s hearing on police crimes.
She told us in clear, strong, and graphic language what happened to her son, Johnny Plummer. How as a 15 year old child he was brutally tortured by the police, the Jon Burge gang. She was dedicated not only to getting justice for her son, but also for all those who were victims of police torture and who had been wrongfully convicted and put in prison, many of them with life sentences.”
The Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture (CFIST) is a campaign of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. CFIST demands:
- That the Office of the State’s Attorney immediately move to vacate convictions for all those framed, tortured and wrongfully convicted, particularly cases involving detectives where an established pattern of torture, forced confession and wrongful convictions holds.
- That Governor Pritzker pardon all survivors of police torture and wrongful conviction, beginning with those whose cases have been deemed credible cases of torture by the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission (TIRC).
