Earlier this week, the Better Government Association released a study showing that wrongful convictions in Illinois have cost taxpayers $214 million and have imprisoned innocent people for 926 years. Reasons for these incarcerations ranged from prosecutor error to police misconduct -- with many of the misconduct cases taking place in Chicago.
Next week, a group of Chicago attorneys and activists will gather at the Hull House in Chicago to memorialize victims of police torture, many of whom spent decades in prison for crimes they didn't commit.
The memorial comes months after former Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge reported to prison after being charged with lying about the torture of suspects under his command. Though Burge was accused of shocking, burning and suffocating young, black men to get confessions -- and overseeing other officers who did the same -- the statute of limitations had run out and he was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison on the perjury charge.
"If Al Capone went down for taxes, it's better than him going down for nothing," U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said at the time of Burge's arrest.
Group members who planned Tuesday's memorial told the Associated Press their goal is “to honor the survivors of torture, their family members, and the African American communities affected by the torture.”
The memorial will reportedly include attorneys who have represented torture victims, and an alleged victim of Chicago police torture.