Photo of Jon Burge credit to NPR.org Steve Nesius
How coerced torture confessions (frequently, as in Burge's case, applied to African-Americans)--such confessions can and do lead to death penalty or life without parole--ruined lives, an angry legacy for the young...
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Outrage Lies at Heart of Burge Charges Published on October 22, 2008
BY CAROL MARIN (Chicago's) Sun-Times
Justice for Melvin Jones is coming late.
Jones is dying. In and out of consciousness, according to his lawyers, it's possible he doesn't yet know the big news that broke Tuesday. That former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge, the man he met in an interrogation room years ago, heard a loud federal knock on the door of his lovely home nestled beside a boat dock in Florida early Tuesday morning.
Arrested and cuffed, Burge is now charged with perjury and obstruction of justice, and he is ordered to appear in federal court in Chicago Monday.
It took too long, 26 years. And it took the intervention of the feds.
That's because neither the Chicago Police Department nor the Cook County state's attorney's office nor Mayor Daley, who once served as state's attorney, nor a court-appointed special prosecutor had the courage or the political will to stand up against the shame that Burge brought upon this city.
It's not that Melvin Jones is a sympathetic character. He is a career criminal I met nine years ago in state prison. But the story he told then -- the one he never wavered from -- was chilling. And corroborated, by the way, by attorneys for the city of Chicago. It's not something they've ever wanted to talk about.
Here's the story.
And here's why it should outrage every one of us who sends a nickel in tax money to city or county officials.
In 1982, Melvin Jones was picked up on suspicion of murder. He was taken to Area 2 police headquarters on the South Side. That's where he met the infamous Jon Burge.
In a 1999 interview for CBS' 60 Minutes II, Jones quoted Burge as saying, "You only have two rights when you come in here, and that's to confess or get your ass kicked."
Jones said he refused to confess to a crime he didn't commit. That's when, he told me, Jon Burge and two other officers brought out a small hand-cranked electrical device with alligator clips. He saw it spark, then felt a shock as they touched his foot with the clip, and then his inner thigh. And then, Jones said Burge told him, "I'm going to put it on your testicles." Jones said he was in tears, "Trying to holler as loud as I can. . . . I was begging them to stop."
They didn't until Jones confessed. Convicted by one court, Jones was ultimately freed by another.
In 1993, when the heat on the city was too great, Burge was finally fired for the torture of murder suspect Andrew Wilson. Little-noticed at the time was that city attorneys admitted in court that Wilson wasn't Burge's only victim. The city acknowledged, "Burge electro shocked Melvin Jones on the genitals and thigh and threatened him with a gun."
The same city officials who until that point defended Burge, deserted him, offering not a shred a public explanation. But they continued to pay for his defense in all the civil suits that would follow. As a result, you and I are still paying. Twenty million dollars in just four cases.
Seven million for one investigation. Uncounted millions in outside legal counsel for Burge and his band of officers.
Jack Byrne is one of them.
A decorated sergeant, he is now retired and working as a private detective.
Reached by phone Tuesday, Byrne said, "I feel very bad for Jon Burge. I've known him all my life. I don't believe these charges. And I stand by all my statements that I never tortured anyone."
Byrne said one more time, "I feel bad for Jon."
I don't. I feel bad for the suspects -- 122 of them by one count -- who were tortured.
I feel sorry for Melvin Jones. A thug and crook, you bet. Even he admitted police had a good reason to question him.
"I'm a prime candidate," he told me. "But I also could be innocent."
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Blogger's Note: Well, there's a lot of muddle still--looks like--who knows who was guilty for sure among the many Burge tortured into confession--122 folk--mostly AFRICAN-AMERICAN...Twenty-six years and still the facts are being debated...
Yet this story seems way too important with so many implications for prevention, justice and more--both at home and abroad--for the reputation of the US, the well being of our own citizens and immigrants--and the future implications of those detained in US prisons, GTMO (whom Bush had and has not intentions of closing), ABU G., the hundreds of sites around the globe.
All of these are holding and torturing psychologically and otherwise without let-up, harassing, intimidating CONFESSIONS FOR the US (where those in charge still believe that they will remain ABOVE THE LAW.
According to many former military officers, prosecutors, lawyers, international human rights lawyers, those who've worked with our own death penalty inmates such as Clive Stafford Smith (Reprieve) and many once in this present administration-- Many if not most of those held are innocent of their detainment, most not yet charged...but who will ever know in most their cases the facts because those who hold them believe they are ABOVE THE LAW...and the constitution??
The simple fact is that BURGE and a lot of his cronies -- Law Officers still (Now isn't that a MISUSE of the term--Law Officers?)--a lot of these police past and present thought (and still think) Burge was above the law and the clarity by a simple search on the internet is that Death Penalty lawyers and many other experts involved in seeking his indictment...for way too long...
As my two young adult sons, both African-American, asked me last night "How come all the fat cats always get off and all the little guys don't have a chance?" Well--what are we going to answer if not, well here is one case when a fat cat just might finally have to answer to the law. IF not, what can we use to help our youth to WANT to follow the law...at least until they really get human and civil rights & ethics fully firm and instilled inside? And no matter how wired any of us are with internal human rights and ethics--we all really appreciate an occasional back up from law once in awhile, no?
What does this one case among multitudes say about the rule of law and the value of human rights, civil rights and ethics in our Nation -- A country which once in awhile was sometimes a light to the Nations on such values?
This month the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be celebrated...will we as a nation still be able to celebrate this occasion or will we have to hang our heads in shame and look BACK to a better day?
And if we are truly anti-death penalty folk, we can't forget all the hundreds of EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS and ASSASSINATIONS that have happened with secret US awareness since the occupations of Iraq/Afghanistan -- there and all over the world...and all the detainees held around the world by US military who've been coerced by torture, intimidation and psychological abuse to confess to facts that are completely untrue. Let me know if you're interested in THESE EXECUTIONS and False charges...newlease7@yahoo.com (Please entitle it on Jorge piece-JOH--subject heading)
Well, I could go on...but will wait for some of your responses and some more expert analysis, reporting and OpEd...
By Connie, one of The JOH blogsite's bloggers
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