Go out with a bang! Free them all! – Strike back! News

Chicago, IL – 75 people gathered outside Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx's office on September 30th. One of the leaders of the protest was Jasmine Smith, a young fiery organizer with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR). Smith shouted into a worn megaphone: “What do we want?” The crowd roared back: “Justice!”

Demonstrations against Foxx have increased since she announced she would not run for re-election at year's end. In 2016, Foxx ran for top prosecutor with the campaign slogan: “Chicago is the wrongful conviction capital of the United States!” The slogan she coined was a response to the legacy of Commander Jon Burge, whose “Midnight Crew tortured hundreds of people – mostly young black men – into signing false confessions in the 1970s, '80s and '90s.

Since Kim Foxx became the first Black woman to lead the district attorney's office in 2017, she has dropped more than 300 wrongful conviction cases. The Chicago Alliance, Chicago Torture Justice Center (CTJC), and Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition & Solidarity (MAMAS) have stepped up efforts to get Foxx to clear more cases before the end of her term.

In the words of Smith: “Kim Foxx, we're telling you to go out with a bang and free as many men as you can before you walk out that door!”

“There is no reason for anyone to be in prison because of the credibility of officials who have come forward multiple times about torture,” said Clayborn Smith, a recently exonerated wrongful conviction survivor who was tortured by Burge and his subordinates.

Other survivors and families of men and women currently unjustly imprisoned and fighting for their freedom made up much of the protest. The coalition of organizations, survivors and families brought a list of demands to Foxx that included a list of credible wrongful conviction cases that her office should immediately investigate and stop prosecuting (see below).

Later that day, the State Attorney's Office (SAO) held a Wrongful Conviction Day event where community members could write questions on index cards in hopes that Foxx would answer them. Although Foxx admitted to feeling the pressure of the movement, she made clear that her resources were limited and that additional federal support was needed to complete the monumental task of reviewing all wrongful conviction cases in Cook County.

Foxx insisted she would not be able to push through another mass exoneration, as she did with the 2022 arrests of former Chicago police Sergeant Ronald Watts and former officer Reynaldo Guevara. She claimed these mass exonerations were possible because of clear patterns of abuse and misconduct by officers.

But Guevara and Watts were not the only officers with clear patterns of misconduct. CAARPR supports a half-dozen survivors of retired Sergeant Brian P. Forberg, a corrupt officer with nearly three dozen similar complaints of coercion, abuse and misconduct, as well as over a dozen wrongful convictions.

In 2022, it was revealed that Forberg was married to an assistant prosecutor in the SAO's Conviction Integrity Unit, which is responsible for reviewing cases with post-conviction appeals and determining their credibility. It is likely that she made decisions in the same cases that Forberg had investigated. The apparent conflict of interest led to a scandal with legal consequences in one of his cases, that of Kevin Jackson. Foxx's office stopped prosecuting Jackson.

It was proven that Forberg and his partners Kevin Eberle and Detective John Foster engaged in abusive behavior and coerced witnesses into giving false testimony against innocent men and women. With over a dozen known cases of wrongful convictions, there is likely enough evidence of a “pattern” for mass exoneration of its survivors like Kevin Jackson and Rico Clark, another high-profile case.

Burge and the Midnight Crew represent the first and second generations of torture cops in Chicago. Meanwhile, officers like Forberg, Eberle and Foster represent the third generation of torture cops, whose tactics have shifted from torturing suspects to coercing witnesses against suspects. Patterns and practices of third-generation torture police are often illustrated in cases where there is no physical evidence and which rely solely on statements from officers and witnesses, although witnesses usually recant at trial and allege coercion by officers.

At her Wrongful Conviction Day event, Kim Foxx agreed that corrupt judges, prosecutors and police officers must be held accountable and that the movement must keep up the pressure from now until December 1 and beyond when she leaves office eliminated, reinforcing a point made at the rally earlier in the day by Joe Iosbaker of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. “Kim Foxx has exonerated over 300 men and some women, and this movement has allowed her to do so.” NO! That made it necessary!”

Below are the coalition's full demands:

Seek to overturn convictions and end opposition to post-conviction applications of persons convicted based on statements obtained through police torture, ill-treatment and coercion. Specific people include, among others:

Antonio Porter

Michael Carter

Tamon Russell

Michael Ward

Matthew Echevarria

Robert Ornelas

Christopher Neal

Abdul Malik Muhammad

Darrell Fair

Johnny Plummer

Clayborn Smith

Kilroy Watkins

Duel Thomas

Lester Owens

Rico Clark

Andrew Mosley

Douglas Livingston

Donald Bates (Donald Haywood)

Hananiah Dukes

Elias Gomez

Gilberto Vargas

Kevin Jackson

Walter Thompson

Antoine Smith

Dashauna Gardener

Darnell Grigsby

Michael Key

Taniko Boyd

Jaber Wilson

Jerome Golden

Eric Smith

Calvin Craig

Artez Thigpen

Billy Anderson

Devon showers

Dismiss pending charges against

Ramon Banks

Jason Johnson

Lorenzo Williams

Coordinate with relevant authorities to provide expedited and guaranteed access to expungement and certificates of innocence for persons convicted on the basis of statements obtained through police torture, ill-treatment and coercion.

Publicly acknowledge and respond to the United Nations mandate issued in May 2024 (Ref.: AL USA 7/2024). This was included and explained in correspondence sent to you by MAMAS in July and again by members of the press in September 2024. and can be read online at bit.ly/UNcpdTorture.

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #Police crimes #Wrongfully convicted #Torture survivors #CAARPR #NAARPR #CFIST #MAMAS