The Illinois Supreme Court ruled (4-3) in favor that Jon Burge, a former Chicago police captain accused of overseeing the torture of hundreds of people of color, will get to keep his monthly pension of $4,000. 

From Opposing Views:

Burge was fired in 1993 after police in his district were found to have tortured suspects by suffocation, forcing guns down their throats and electrocuting their genitals with cattle prods, all in an effort to get false confessions, reports Courthouse News.

As a result of the scandal, numerous convictions were overturned and all inmates on death-row got sentence reductions. Four prisoners were pardoned by then-Gov. George Ryan.

The torture dates back to 1973 and resulted in one man being in jail for 30 years based on a false confession via electrocution.

 However, prosecutors didn’t launch an investigation into Burge until 2006.

By then Burge could not be convicted of any torture crimes because of the statute of limitations, but he was found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying about police torture in 2010. Burge was sentenced to four years in federal prison.

Read more at Opposing Views

Burge served just three years in prison and will carry out the last year of his sentence in a halfway house in Florida.

The City of Chicago paid more than $66 million in civil lawsuits mostly to African-American men who were tortured. Millions more were spent on legal bills. The expenses, paid by residents, amounted to a grand total of more than $100 million.

The Retirement Board of the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago voted 4-4 to end Burge’s pension, but it wasn’t terminated because of the tie vote. What an unfortunate decision. May those affected by Burge’s racist tactics be able to move on with their lives.

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