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Chicago Approves $20M Settlement in Torture Case

HeadlineJan 10, 2008

And in Chicago, the City Council has voted to approve a nearly $20 million settlement to four former death row prisoners who gave false confessions after being tortured by Chicago police. The four men are all African American. They sued former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and more than twenty officers who worked with him, alleging that they were coerced into falsely confessing to murder. In 2006, special prosecutors released a long-awaited report stating there was proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Burge and four other former officers abused suspects to extract confessions in the 1980s. Charges have never been filed against Burge. He was fired in 1993 but is still receiving a yearly police pension.

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