Copwatch joins with others to put pressure on Lisa Madigan to grant new trials for police torture victims

Why is Lisa Madigan Passing the Buck?
Tell her to initiate hearings for police torture victims NOW!

What: Picket & pack the courtroom
Where: Cook County Courthouse, 26th & California
When: Friday, Feb. 20, 1 PM

"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, Sept. 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.

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.

Instead, Lisa Madigan is passing the buck. Rather than ask Judge Paul Biebel for evidentiary hearings, she has filed a motion to re-assign five of her cases to States Attorney Anita Alvarez. 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.
For more information, call 773-955-4841 or email julien@nodeathpenalty.org
Event will be co-sponsored by:

Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Eight Day Center for Justice
Northside Action for Justice Copwatch
Francis of Assisi Catholic Worker House
Voices for Creative Non-Violence