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On February 2, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Stanley Wrice, one of 15 men still in prison despite credible evidence that they were tortured into confessing by subordinates of convicted former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge, is entitled to a new evidentiary hearing to resolve his torture claim.
The Roderick MacArthur Justice Center filed an amicus brief in the case on behalf of legal and political leaders including former U.S. Senator Adlai Stevenson and former Illinois Governor Jim Thompson urging immediate hearings for Wrice and the 14 other alleged torture victims still in prison.
Last year, a state appeals court ruled that Wrice was entitled to the hearing, which could lead to the reversal of his conviction. Prosecutors sought to block that hearing in an appeal to the State Supreme Court, claiming that the torture inflicted by Burge's notorious "Midnight Crew" was "harmless error."
In the Supreme Court's opinion in Wrice's case, Justice Mary Jane Theis wrote for a unanimous court, "Use of a defendant's physically coerced confession as substantive evidence of his guilt is never harmless error."
The Court's opinion in Wrice's case should apply to the 14 other Burge victims who remain behind bars, despite claims similar to Wrice's.
Read the Washington Post's article about the opinion.
Hear more about the significance of the decision from former Illinois Gov. Thompson and MacArthur Justice Center Attorney Bowman in this Channel 7 story.
Read more about the amicus brief filed by the MacArthur Justice Center
Updated (02/07/12)
