Chicago, Daley/Machine, Illinois, International Women's Media Fund, Midwest America, Policing, Politics, United States
Published on May 21, 2016

Burge Victims Speak (in progress)

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“Torture can be an open secret in a democratic society. Apparently, successive Chicago police superintendents suppressed internal investigations that revealed torture, successive state’s attorneys knew of the torture but refused to investigate, and the state’s Felony Review Unit knowingly elicited and used tortured confessions. Approximately one-third of the current Cook County criminal court judges are former assistant state’s attorneys or Area 2 detectives who were involved in the torture cases. Courts and the public will also look the other way.” – Darius Rejali, Torture and Democracy

Marvin Reeves, 56, stands near the front of the house he bought for his daughter in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois on November 29, 2015. Reeves purchased and renovated the house with money he received in settlement from the City of Chicago after a codefendant, Ronald Kitchen, and he were both beaten so badly their families did not recognize them at arraignment and Kitchen confessed to a crime both were innocent of; Reeves spent 21 years incarcerated from 1988-2009 for a South Side arson that killed two women and three children and had received five consecutive life sentences.

Marvin Reeves, 56, stands near the front of the house he bought for his daughter in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois on November 29, 2015. Reeves purchased and renovated the house with money he received in settlement from the City of Chicago after a codefendant, Ronald Kitchen, and he were both beaten so badly their families did not recognize them at arraignment and Kitchen confessed to a crime both were innocent of; Reeves spent 21 years incarcerated from 1988-2009 for a South Side arson that killed two women and three children and had received five consecutive life sentences.

Stanley Wrice sits in the living room of the home he shares with his daughter and son-in-law in Calumet City, Illinois on November 4, 2015. Wrice spent 31 years in jail for a crime he did not commit after a confession was extracted from him in 1982 by Chicago Police Area Two detectives who beat him using a rubber pipe with duct tape on both ends.

Stanley Wrice sits in the living room of the home he shares with his daughter and son-in-law in Calumet City, Illinois on November 4, 2015. Wrice spent 31 years in jail for a crime he did not commit after a confession was extracted from him in 1982 by Chicago Police Area Two detectives who beat him using a rubber pipe with duct tape on both ends.

Mark Clements, a victim of Chicago police torture that occurred while Jon Burge was Commander, sits in a park in the South Loop in Chicago, Illinois on August 16, 2015. Clements was 16 when he was arrested, tortured and accused of arson and involvement in the death of four individuals inside the building where the fire occurred and convicted at 17 before serving 26 years for a crime he did not commit; while in initial detention, police beat a false confession out of him by striking him repeatedly and squeezing his genitals.

Mark Clements, a victim of Chicago police torture that occurred while Jon Burge was Commander, sits in a park in the South Loop in Chicago, Illinois on August 16, 2015. Clements was 16 when he was arrested, tortured and accused of arson and involvement in the death of four individuals inside the building where the fire occurred and convicted at 17 before serving 26 years for a crime he did not commit; while in initial detention, police beat a false confession out of him by striking him repeatedly and squeezing his genitals.