Portal:Chicago/Selected biography/53

Chicago Police Commander Jon Graham Burge is a former Chicago Police Department detective and decorated United States Army soldier who has gained notoriety for allegedly torturing more than 200 criminal suspects between 1972 and 1991, in order to force confessions. He served tours in South Korea and in the Vietnam War after extensive training that began in Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps and continued as an enlisted United States Army Reserve soldier where he was trained for and served in the military police. He then returned to the South Side of Chicago and began his career as a Police officer. Various allegations arose about the methodologies of Burge and those under his command. Eventually, the weight of hundreds of similar stories caused Illinois Governor George Ryan to declare a moratorium on death penalty executions in Illinois in 2000 and clear the state's death row in 2003. The most controversial arrests began in February 1982 at a time when a series of shootings of Chicago law enforcement officials caused a turbulent time in Police Area 2 whose detective squad Burge commanded. Some of the people who confessed to murder were later granted new trials, and a few were even acquitted or pardoned. Burge was acquitted of police brutality charges in 1989 after a first trial resulted in a hung jury. As a result of an internal Police Department review and hearing, Burge was suspended from the Chicago Police Department in 1991 and fired in 1993. Having never been convicted of a felony, Burge lives in Florida and continues to receive a police pension to which he is entitled. In 2002, a special prosecutor began investigating the accusations. The review, which cost $17 million, revealed improprieties that resulted in no action due to the statute of limitations. After Burge was fired, there was a groundswell of support to investigate his convictions. Several were reversed, remanded or overturned. Several of those sent to death row as a result of Burge's work, were granted reduced sentences of some form. In fact, all Illinois death row inmates were. Four of Burge's victims were pardoned by then-Governor George Ryan and subsequently filed suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against the City of Chicago, various police officers, Cook County and various State's Attorneys. The parties consented to have the four cases consolidated and a settlement of $19.8 million dollars was reached in December 2007 with the "city defendants". The cases against Cook County and the other current/former county prosecutors continue as of July 2008.