Coalition urges tougher sentence for former Police Commander Jon Burge

Chicago, IL – Members of the Illinois Coalition Against Torture (ICAT) today delivered 1044 petition signatures to Judge Joan Lefkow, objecting to the U.S. Probation Department’s recommendation that former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge be sentenced to just 15-21 months of incarceration. 

Last June, after a 25 year battle for justice, Burge was found guilty of two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of perjury for lying about the torture of more than 100 African American men and women at Area 2 and 3 Police Headquarters in the 1970s and 1980s. Burge will be sentenced on Thursday, January 20, 2011. He faces a maximum sentence of 45 years imprisonment.

 

Despite the egregious nature of the crimes underlying the perjury conviction – including systemic torture perpetrated by officers of the law – the U.S. Probation Department in its Presentence Investigation Report (PSR) used sentencing guidelines to recommend that Burge be sentenced to only 15-21 months in prison. 

 

Those familiar with the Burge torture cases found these recommendations shocking. “This sentencing recommendation fails to address the devastating harm Burge wrought on individuals and families in the African-American community in Chicago, as well as the lack of remorse he has shown for the horrendous crimes he committed,” said Larry Redmond, an ICAT member and former criminal defense attorney representing death row inmates. “Systematic torture by state actors is not acceptable, but such a minimal punishment would indicate that it is.”

The petition presented to Judge Lefkow calls for a sentence commensurate with the harm Burge inflicted, and that he has, for decades, also failed to acknowledge and mitigate. The suffering for victims and their families has been compounded by decades of silence. Even after this federal conviction, Burge has refused to name his criminal collaborators, take any responsibility, or show any contrition. On the contrary, this week he has pled that his sentence should be reduced further because of his military service in Vietnam. ICAT members point out that he brought the torture practices and tools he used overseas,  including the notorious electric shock box, to interrogation rooms on the South side of Chicago.

The coalition urged the Court to recognize that Burge did not merely lie during the course of a civil rights proceeding; rather, the underlying crimes of systemic torture and abuse under cover of law that Burge instituted over a twenty year period must be considered. Alice Kim, an ICAT member and advocate for Burge torture survivors, explained: “Burge was a police commander, entrusted to ‘serve and protect,’ when he carried out these acts of torture. As one person who signed the online petition noted: He was supposed to be a guardian of justice. More than that, Burge has failed to admit to his crimes. He’s failed to apologize for his crimes. And he failed to testify about the torture practiced by other police under his command – testimony that might provide modest relief to torture survivors. His sentence should send a message that Black lives matter and torture is not acceptable.”

In addition to this petition, ICAT released a broadside called the Jon Burge Torture Index, adapted from the Harper’s magazine index, which illustrates the extent of the torture and the lack of accountability on the part of Burge and the officers under his command. It also describes the horrific nature of the torture (22 men electrically shocked, 23 men suffocated with plastic bags, 32 men whose genitals were injured), the human cost to Burge’s victims, and the financial cost to local taxpayers. 

The petition was delivered to Judge Joan Lefkow’s clerk, with copies provided to the U.S. Attorneys’ office and Burge’s defense team in anticipation of the January 20 sentencing hearing at the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago.