Recently in civil rights Category

A federal jury in Orlando, Fla., found former Bureau of Prisons corrections officer Michael Kennedy guilty late yesterday on felony federal civil rights charges related to the fatal assault of an inmate in March 2005, the Justice Department announced today. Kennedy was convicted of conspiring with others to violate the federal civil rights of inmate Richard Delano and for violating Delano's civil rights by arranging for another inmate to assault Delano.

The evidence at trial showed that on Feb. 28, 2005, Kennedy and former Bureau of Prisons corrections officer Erin Sharma agreed to move Delano into the cell of inmate John McCullah at the Federal Correctional Complex Coleman in Coleman, Fla. The evidence also showed that Kennedy and Sharma knew that McCullah was likely to assault Delano, and that the move was in retaliation for a prior altercation between Delano and Sharma. Kennedy also conspired with McCullah by bribing him to assault Delano. Kennedy moved Delano into McCullah's cell on March 1, 2005, and three days later McCullah assaulted Delano. Delano later died from the injuries he suffered during that assault.

On July 29, 2009, following a trial in Orlando, Fla., a federal jury found Erin Sharma guilty of similar felony civil rights charges for her role in the offense. On Aug. 28, 2009, she was sentenced to life in prison.

"The vast majority of law enforcement officers bravely uphold the civil rights of arrestees and inmates, even under adverse conditions. However, as this case shows, when a law enforcement officer violates the civil rights of any person, the Justice Department will not hesitate to investigate and prosecute such an offender," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "This case reflects the kind of abuses that our nation's civil rights laws are intended to punish."

Kennedy faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 13, 2010.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bruce Ambrose and Carolyn Adams from the U.S. Attorney's Office, and Senior Litigation Counsel Gerard Hogan and Trial Attorney Douglas Kern from the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. FBI Special Agent Jim Raby was the lead investigator on the case.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

Exactly 23 years after he was subjected to a crude form of waterboarding, suffocation, and a mock execution during a sadistic three-day interrogation by subordinates of indicted former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge, Michael Tillman will file a petition in Cook County Circuit Court Tuesday seeking a new trial in connection with his wrongful murder conviction.

Following his arrest on July 21, 1986, Tillman was ruthlessly abused by the infamous "Midnight Crew" at Area 2 Police Headquarters, a cadre of rogue Chicago cops operating under Burge's right-hand man, Sergeant John Byrne. Based largely on a bogus confession extracted during that unlawful interrogation, Tillman was wrongfully convicted of murdering Betty Howard and was sentenced to prison, where he remains today.

On Tuesday, attorneys from the Peoples Law Office and the Roderick MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University will file a post-conviction petition asking the court to vacate Tillman's conviction and order new trial. The move comes in the wake of massive evidence that Tillman was a casualty of a systematic ring of torture that Burge and his underlings inflicted on African-American suspects from the early 1970s through the 1990s.

"Of all the torture cases in the system, the ones like Tillman's are particularly galling," said Locke E. Bowman, Legal Director of the MacArthur Center. "Tillman has been in prison for twenty three years for one reason only: he was tortured into confessing to a crime he didn't commit."

Since Tillman unsuccessfully appealed his conviction in 1999, Burge, Byrne and detectives under their command have been implicated by multiple law enforcement officials in a pattern of torture. In 2006, a Cook County Special Prosecutor issued a report concluding that the torture occurred, and last year U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald indicted Burge. Meanwhile, Burge, Byrne and their associates have invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination under questioning about abuse charges.

Stymied by the decades-long cover-up of the torture ring and unable to afford a lawyer, Tillman was forced to let the statutory deadline for his post-conviction petition expire. But in filing the petition on his behalf Tuesday, Tillman's attorneys called on Attorney General Lisa Madigan to allow the case to be considered on the merits, rather than seeking to dismiss it on a technicality.

"Prosecutors are required to hold the interests of justice higher than the pursuit of convictions," said G. Flint Taylor of the People's Law Office. "Mr. Tillman has set forth a powerful case of torture, innocence, and cover-up in his Petition. This is therefore a most compelling case for Attorney General Madigan to honor her prosecutorial oath, the interests of justice, and her pledge that she will not rely on tortured evidence. To do so she, or whoever succeeds her as the prosecutor in this case, must forego technical defenses and agree that Tillman is entitled to a hearing on his claims of torture and innocence."

SOURCE MacArthur Justice Center