Inmate testifies police under Jon Burge beat him into confessing to murder - See torture works

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-burgemay19,0,6386877.story

Chicago police beating case: Inmate testifies police under Jon Burge beat him into confessing to murder

Man is asking court to give him a new trial, and detectives take stand but decline to testify

By Matthew Walberg | Tribune reporter
May 19, 2009

A man serving a life sentence for a 1990 murder testified Monday he confessed only after he was beaten for half an hour by Chicago police detectives under the command of disgraced former Cmdr. Jon Burge.

Cortez Brown, 38, who now goes by his birth name of Victor Safforld, is seeking a new trial, arguing that his confession was coerced because he feared for his safety and that of his family.

Two of the officers accused of abuse, Detective James O'Brien and retired Detective Anthony Maslanka, as well as the sergeant on duty that night, also took the stand Monday at the hearing before Cook County Circuit Judge Clayton J. Crane. But each would not divulge anything but their names before asserting their 5th Amendment right to not have to testify against themselves.

Safforld testified Monday that while he was handcuffed to a wall in 1990, O'Brien allegedly held him while Maslanka and another detective, John Paladino, punched him in the body, slapped the side of his head and hit him with a flashlight. After about 30 minutes, he said, "I told them I would say whatever they wanted me to say, sign whatever they wanted me to sign."

Safforld was sentenced to death for the slayings of Curtis Sims and Delvin Boelter, but later then-Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentence to life in prison.

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1. yeah this is part of the reason they suspended the death penalty in IL

john burge is EVIL. It took this long to get him to trial.