City Settles 2 Chicago Police Torture Cases: Black Men Awarded $7 Million

From [HERE] A Chicago City Council committee has signed off on settlements in two lawsuits filed by men who allege they were victims of police torture during the tenure of former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge. The settlements totaling $7.17 million still need the full City Council's approval. More than $5 million would go to Michael Tillman (in photo left), who says officers tortured him for four days until he confessed to murder. He was exonerated after spending more than 23 years in prison. Additionally, David Fauntleroy would get $1.8 million. He spent 25 years in prison after being charged in a 1983 double murder, but that case was dropped in 2009. Burge was convicted in 2010 of lying about the torture of suspects and is serving 4 ½ years in prison.

After more than 23 years behind bars, Tillman was freed in January 2010 when a special prosecutor said his conviction depended on "coerced statements." Tillman has said he was beaten until he vomited blood, had a plastic bag wrapped around his head and had soda pop poured into his nostrils for three days until he provided a confession in the death of 42-year-old Betty Howard, who lived in the same apartment building as Tillman at the time. Tillman, is one of many young black men who claim to have been beaten by police under Burge’s command at the Pullman Area headquarters, 727 E. 111th St. [MORE] 

David Fauntleroy spent more than 25 years behind bars before his murder conviction was vacated. The Illinois attorney general's office dropped the charges after determining that he was entitled to a new trial based on allegations that his confession to taking part in a double murder in 1983 was coerced by detectives working under Burge. Fauntleroy said he falsely confessed only after being told that Andrews had implicated him and after detectives took him in a police car to a wooded area, turned off the lights and pulled a gun on him. "He thought they were going to kill him," his attorney said. He also claimed that police failed to intervene during his alleged mistreatment. 

Fauntleroy, 47, and James Andrews were convicted of the 1983 robbery and killings of Floyd Jenkins and Keith Lewis. The case against Andrews, who maintained that he was beaten by Burge detectives until he falsely confessed, was dropped in 2007. Both men had been serving sentences of life in prison without parole.