Democracynow.org: Federal Prosecutors to Probe Chicago Torture Scandal

And federal prosecutors have announced they’re now conducting a criminal investigation of the Chicago police torture scandal. For nearly two decades a part of the city’s jails known as Area 2 was the epicenter for what has been described as the systematic torture of dozens of African-American males by Chicago police officers. In total, more than 135 people say they were subjected to abuse including having guns forced into their mouths, bags places over their heads, and electric shocks inflicted to their genitals. Four men have been released from death row after government investigators concluded torture led to their wrongful convictions. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald says his office will probe whether former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and his subordinates lied under oath or obstructed investigations into the allegations. Fitzgerald also says prosecutors have re-opened an investigation into the 1987 fire that led to the conviction of one of the torture victims. The victim, Madison Hobley, has sued Burge and more than twenty officers for allegedly coercing him into falsely confessing to murders.