RALLY FOR BURGE TORTURE VICTIMS AND PACK THE COURTROOM FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1pm rally (and at 2pm there is a court hearing in Judge Biebel's courtroom, R. 101) Cook County Courthouse, 26th & California Why is Lisa Madigan Passing the Buck? Tell her to initiate hearings for police torture victims NOW!
"I can promise that as Attorney General, I will never cover up the truth and stand in the way of justice," Lisa Madigan campaign news release, September 23, 2002. Attorney General Lisa Madigan is on the wrong side of history. While President Obama has ordered the closing of Guantanamo Prison due to international outcry over torture, Madigan has allowed dozens of Chicago police torture victims, all of whom are African-American, to languish in prison in Obama's backyard. On Feb. 20, she will be appearing in court to present a motion to have five torture cases she currently oversees transferred to States Attorney Anita Alvarez. In other words, she is passing the buck. Madigan was appointed nearly six years ago as a special prosecutor to oversee the cases of men who endured torture at the hands of Chicago police commander Jon Burge and his minions. Burge was indicted last October, and judges, special prosecutors, and even the police's own investigative body, the Office of Professional Standards (OPS), have concluded that his detectives carried out numerous acts of torture using interrogation techniques such as electro-shock, suffocation, and mock executions to extract confessions. Yet Madigan has failed to initiate evidentiary hearings for police torture victims despite two reports, several requests for meetings, and a number of protests at her office by attorneys, community activists and prisoners' family members calling on her to do the right thing. In 2007, the Cook County Board of Commissioners even passed a resolution calling on her to initiate evidentiary hearings for all Burge torture victims. Rather than ask Judge Paul Biebel for evidentiary hearings, Lisa Madigan is asking him to allow her to pass the buck. It's time to tell Lisa Madigan that ALL torture cases need to be dealt with, and that ALL torture victims deserve new trials. Join us for a picket and help us pack the courtroom. This is sponsored by Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Chicago Committee to Free the Cuban Five, DePaul Students against the Death Penalty, Francis of Assisi Catholic Worker House, Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, International Socialist Organization, National Alliance against Racist and Political Repression, Northside Action for Justice Copwatch, Tamms Year Ten, Voices for Creative Non-Violence and 8th Day Center for Justice. For more information, call 773-955-4841 or email [email protected] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Internet group address: http://groups.google.com/group/ChicagoMayDay To send e-mail: [email protected] To unsuscribe: [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
