6 years is too long to wait! Rally, Press Conference, & Peoples Delegation: Tell Attorney General Lisa Madigan that Burge torture victims deserve new trials!
April 6, noon Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph (at Clark)
In April 2003, Attorney General Lisa Madigan was appointed to oversee the cases of dozens of police torture victims under former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge, who goes on trial in May.
For nearly six years, the prisoners and their families, activists, and attorneys having been asking the Attorney General to initiate evidentiary hearings for men who faced electro-shock, suffocation, beatings and mock executions in Area 2 and Area 3 police interrogation rooms.
While President Obama has ordered the closing of Guantanamo Prison due to international outcry over torture, Lisa Madigan has allowed dozens of Chicago police torture victims, all of whom are African-American, to languish in prison in Obama’s backyard.
In 2007, the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution calling on Madigan to initiate new hearings for all police torture victims. It is now March of 2009 and she has still refused to take substantial action. Even more disturbing, on April 7 2009, rather than grant relief to torture victims, she is hoping that a judge will allow her to pass five of the torture cases to new States Attorney Anita Alvarez.
With Lisa Madigan gearing up for a run for Governor, it’s time for her to take responsibility for the Burge torture cases. No public official who condones torture is fit to be in the State’s highest office. Join exonerated torture victims, activists, attorneys, and family members for a rally, press conference, and a people’s delegation to Lisa Madigan’s office to tell her:
* Six years is to long to wait! Police torture victims deserve new trials immediately.
For more information or to co-sponsor this event, 312.623.1602 or email
Event is co-sponsored by:
Voices for Creative Non-Violence, Northside Action for Justice, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Francis of Assisi Catholic Worker House, DePaul Students Against the Death Penalty, Eighth Day Center for Justice, Black People Against Police Torture, International Socialist Organization, Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago, Tamms Year Ten, Citizens Alert, Wellington Avenue Church of Christ, Racial Justice Task Force of First Unitarian Church
