Chicago torture saga grows

Chicago torture saga grows, victim released from prison after 31 years
Stanley Wrice says he was forced to confess to sexual assault after Chicago police allegedly beat him with a flashlight and a 20-inch piece of rubber. Many others claim similar treatment.


By Mark Guarino, Staff writer / December 11, 2013

A Chicago man stepped out of an Illinois prison Wednesday after a 31-year incarceration for a crime he says he did not commit. He says his is a victim of torture from one of the darkest chapters in Chicago Police Department history.




The city has spent more than $85 million in settlements and legal fees for 17 cases related to Jon Burge, a former Chicago police commander who led a secret unit within the police department that carried out systemic torture during interrogations between 1972 and 1991.


Mr. Burge was never criminally prosecuted, and the statute of limitations has run out, preventing Burge from ever facing a criminal trial. However, he is currently serving a 4-1/2 year prison term for perjury and obstruction of justice charges from a 2010 civil case related to the torture cases.


Stanley Wrice exited Pontiac Correctional Center in Pontiac, Ill., Wednesday saying he was filled with “an overwhelming feeling of joy, happiness that finally it’s over with.”

Mr. Wrice left prison a day after a Cook County judge overturned his conviction, saying two Chicago police detectives lied about the interrogation techniques established by Burge. In his trial, and for years afterwards, Wrice argued he was forced to confess for a 1982 sexual assault after John Byrne and Peter Dignan allegedly beat him with a flashlight and a 20-inch piece of rubber. Attorneys representing torture victims say those two instruments were commonly used to force confessions under Burge.

Wrice was convicted of rape, armed violence, and unlawful restraint, and received a sentence of 100 years in prison.

　冤罪。

　警官が拷問して虚偽の自白をさせた、と。

　自白だけで、有罪に？