Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts tagged as “Chicago police”

Stanley Wrice, Wrongfully Imprisoned for 30 Years, Freed in Chicago Police Torture Saga

By goodblacknews on December 12, 2013

Stanley Wrice, center, convicted of rape and sentenced to 100 years in prison in 1982, speaks to the media with his lawyer Heidi Linn Lambros , left, and his daughter, Gail Lewis, as he leaves Pontiac Correctional Center Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013 in Pontiac, Ill. Wrice was released after serving more than 30 years in prison when a Cook County Judge overturned his conviction the day before and granted him a new trial. Wrice has claimed for decades he was beaten and coerced into confessing to the rape by Chicago police Area 2 detectives working for disgraced former Chicago police Lt. Jon Burge. Burge himself, is now in federal prison after being convicted of perjury related to torture allegations. Judge Richard Walsh's ruling comes after the officers working for Lt. Burge who Wrice says beat him, invoked their right not to testify. (AP Photos/M. Spencer Green)
Stanley Wrice, center, convicted of rape and sentenced to 100 years in prison in 1982, speaks to the media with his lawyer Heidi Linn Lambros, left, and his daughter, Gail Lewis, as he leaves Pontiac Correctional Center Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. Wrice was released after serving more than 30 years in prison when a Cook County Judge overturned his conviction the day before and granted him a new trial. (AP Photos/M. Spencer Green)

PONTIAC, Ill. (AP) — During his more than 30 years behind bars, Stanley Wrice insisted he was innocent, that Chicago police had beat him until he confessed to a rape he didn’t commit. On Wednesday, he walked out of an Illinois prison a free man, thanks to a judge’s order that served as a reminder that one of the darkest chapters in the city’s history is far from over.
“It’s just an overwhelming feeling of joy, happiness that finally it’s over,” said Wrice, who was greeted by his two daughters, his attorneys, and other supporters. He wore sweat pants, a dark jacket and baseball cap and carried a cardboard box filled with letters, photographs and legal papers – all of his possessions after three decades in prison.
Wrice, who was sentenced to 100 years behind bars for a 1982 sexual assault, is among more than two dozen inmates – most of them black men – who have alleged they were tortured by officers under the command of disgraced former Chicago police Lt. Jon Burge in a scandal that gave the nation’s third-largest city a reputation as haven for rogue cops and helped lead to the clearing of Illinois’ death row. Some of the prisoners have been freed; some are still behind bars, hoping to get the kind of hearing that Wrice got that eventually led to his freedom.

Jury Awards $1 Million To John Collins, Who Sued City of Chicago For False Police Charges

By goodblacknews on September 25, 2013

John Collins
John Collins, who was wrongfully imprisoned in Cook County Jail for over a year.

Cook County jurors on Tuesday awarded $1 million to a man who was wrongfully held in jail for more than a year.  John Collins, a 42-year-old Chicago barber, was arrested in 2006 and spent 385 days in jail due to false charges of aggravated battery to a police office, officials said.  After a three-day trial, a jury found the city of Chicago and Chicago police Officer Michael Garza guilty of malicious prosecution.

“I felt like a right in the pool of wrong,” Collins said of his time in jail. “I didn’t want to swim in that pool no more, but I didn’t want to drown either. So I kept fighting.”  When officers pulled Collins over in 2006, he’d just left his salon.  One officer accused him of kicking and spitting on them, but a jury acquitted Collins and he was released from Cook County in 2007.

“All I know is that I ended up a victim,” he said. Collins said the trauma and distress is still with him. “I was just devastated,” he said. “I was just devastated.” Collins missed the birth of his now 7-year-old son Elwood while in jail, a moment he said he can never get back.  Since his release, Collins has worked continuously in his Dolton salon, and noted the verdict brings him a step closer to having his life back.  “I’m thankful that someone’s seen justice,” he said.

A spokesman for the city’s Law Department said they are “disappointed” in the verdict in the case and said they plan to “explore all available options including an appeal.”

article by Natalie Martinez via nbcchicago.com