Sentencing Postponed For Burge
CHICAGO (CBS) - Sentencing has been postponed for a former Chicago police Lt. Jon Burge, who was convicted of lying about the torture of suspects.
Burge, 62, was originally slated to be sentenced Friday, but a federal judge has reset the date to Jan. 20.
Burge was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice on June 28, for lying in a civil suit when he denied committing or witnessing torture. More than 100 victims have said the torture started in the 1970s and persisted until the 1990s at police stations on the city's South and West sides.
He has been free on bond since the five-week trial.
During the trial, felons described beatings, suffocations and games of Russian roulette at the hands of Burge and his men. They also heard from Burge, a decorated former officer and Vietnam veteran who repeatedly denied ever participating in physical abuse or witnessing any during his 28 years with the Chicago Police Department.
Burge's name has become synonymous with police brutality and abuse of power in Chicago. For decades, dozens of suspects -- almost all of them black men -- claimed Burge and his officers tortured them into confessing to crimes ranging from armed robbery to murder.
Former Gov. George Ryan released four condemned men from death row in 2003 after Ryan said Burge had extracted confessions from them using torture.
The allegations of torture and coerced confessions eventually led to a still-standing moratorium on Illinois' death penalty and the emptying of death row -- moves credited with re-igniting the global fight against capital punishment.
But they also earned Chicago a reputation as a haven for rogue cops, a place where police could abuse suspects without notice or punishment.
While Burge was fired from the Police Department in 1993 over the alleged mistreatment of convicted cop killer Andrew Wilson, he never was criminally charged in that case or any other, a situation that created widespread outrage in Chicago's black neighborhoods. The community anger intensified when Burge moved to Florida on his police pension and his alleged victims remained in prison.
Burge faces a maximum of 45 years in prison.
(TM and © Copyright 2010 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS Radio and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
