Death of former Police Commissioner Jon Burge: reports

Jon Burge, a former police commander in the center of dozens of cases of police brutality and torture that resulted in several multi-million dollar settlements, died on Wednesday, according to several sources.

Burge, aged 70, was charged by more than 100 African Americans with being tortured and physically assaulted while in police custody in the 1970s, '80s and early' 90s. Special prosecutors alleged that Burge led to the torture of suspects, which resulted in dozens of confessions.

The Chicago Lodge fraternal police order would not confirm his death, but issued a statement on the death of Burge to Facebook, claiming that the organization "does not believe that the full story of the cases Burge's never been told, especially the conviction, Madison Hobley's exoneration for arson that killed seven people. "

"We hope this story will be told in the years to come," said the FOP. "We offer our condolences to the Burge family."

Burge has never been charged with torture, but was found guilty in 2010 of lying about torture in a civil case. He was sentenced to four and a half years in 2011 for obstruction of justice and perjury charges.

"Justice should have been delayed, and what happened should never have happened, and justice should have come sooner, but justice delayed is not justice completely denied," said the lawyer. American Patrick Fitzgerald.

In the following years, more than 100 suspects, nearly all of them African-American, said they were also tortured by Burge or men under his command at Zone 2 police headquarters. Allegations of torture ranged from electrocution to a person's genitals, by placing a typewriter blanket over a person's head, making them think they would suffocate.

Darrell Cannon was another who said very early that he had been forced to confess. In a 2010 interview, he recounted how an officer under Burge's command put a rifle in his mouth and pulled the trigger. Cannon believed that the shotgun was loaded. Cannon was released after 24 years in prison when a review panel determined that the evidence against him was tainted.

At the time of the conviction, Burge described himself as a broken man and appealed to the judge for his clemency, saying he was "deeply sorry."

"I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a perfect person," Burge said. "I am not the person represented in the media and by plaintiffs' lawyers."

In 2015, Burge was released from a Florida halfway house after four and a half years in federal custody.

The city of Chicago has paid millions of dollars in reparations to people who claim to have been tortured by Burge.

"Jon Burge's actions are a shame for Chicago and for the men and women workers of the police department, but especially for those he has vowed to protect," Emanuel said in a statement. "We are together as a city to try to repair these wrongs and to end this dark chapter in Chicago's history."

Last fall, the Chicago Public Schools announced that the program will teach the eighth and tenth year students the torture of the police at the hands of Burge.