Torture works "so well" in Illinois we found 13 innocent men on our death row waiting to be executed

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.truthinjustice.org/dphistory-IL.htm

<snip>1993

Feb.24: A secret Chicago police internal report surfaces cataloging more than 50 instances of "methodical" and "systematic" torture by Jon Burge and his subordinates.

June 28: In Maryland, former Marine Kirk Bloodsworth becomes the first American under sentence of death to be exonerated by DNA.

1994

May 10: John Wayne Gacy dies by lethal injection in the state's first involuntary execution, 17 years after Illinois reinstated the death penalty.

Sept. 8: Joseph Burrows becomes the state's third Death Row prisoner to win exoneration.

1995

March 22: James Free and Hernando Williams die an hour apart in the state's first double execution since 1952.

May 17: Girvies Davis of St. Clair County is executed despite evidence developed by Northwestern University journalism students indicating he may have been innocent.

Sept. 20: Charles Albanese is executed for the murders of three relatives, crimes he denies committing.

Nov. 3: Rolando Cruz becomes the state's fourth exonerated Death Row prisoner when a sheriff 's officer admits Cruz did not make a statement authorities used to convict him.

Dec. 8: Alejandro Hernandez, co-defendant of Cruz, becomes the fifth Death Row prisoner to be exonerated.



http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0301/11/smn.13.html

<snip>RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: What we're talking about is you had 25 people on Illinois' death row, 13 of them, that is over half, 13 of them walked away from prison because they were innocent, and the other 12 were executed. You had a man on death row in Illinois come within two days of being executed who was later exonerated, meaning it wasn't that he was cleared on a technicality, it wasn't that didn't read him his Miranda rights, it's that he was innocent.

He didn't do the crime, and that's what this is about. And you know, for whatever reason, Governor Ryan is not a Johnny come lately on this issue. He's imposed a moratorium in Illinois in the year 2000 specifically to study these cases and that's...

(CROSSTALK)

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: ... what he did.

SMERCONISH: Lida, I'm not sure about that because when he came into office, he was a pro death penalty advocate and now he has changed his tune at a time when his own career needs a lifesaver of sorts. And I go back to the fact that in the Chicago newspapers this morning, you have quotes from the prosecutors of these cases, not just one rogue cop, not just one district attorney, but a whole host of them who are saying hey, I know the facts of this case and it's outrageous for this governor to now use the word innocent in connection with this particular defendant or this particular perpetrator.

RODRIGUEZ-TASEFF: I'm glad you bring up the word "rogue cop" because that's what were talking about. There is a rogue cop in Illinois that was torturing, not just beating, not just slapping around, torturing suspects. This rogue cop was in 1983, had to be fired because he was torturing people. These four people were tortured into confessing.

They were beaten. They had hoods put over their heads and suffocated. They had guns pointed at their heads. These -- we're talking about a problem that is not just in Illinois, not just with this governor who you say is trying to protect his legacy, and he maintains that he is pro death penalty.