CHICAGO (AP) — The Illinois Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to hear the case of a man who claims Chicago police, under the command of a convicted former lieutenant, tortured him into giving a false confession nearly 30 years ago.
Stanley Wrice, 56, said he confessed to a 1982
sexual assault only after officers working for former Lt. Jon Burge beat him in
the face and groin with a flashlight and a piece of rubber. He's serving a
100-year sentence.
In December, the appellate court granted Wrice a
new evidentiary hearing on his torture claims. Prosecutors looking to block the
move asked the higher court to take the case, and the justices agreed.
Burge was convicted last year of lying about
whether he ever witnessed or participated in the torture of suspects. He's
serving a 4 1/2-year sentence at Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North
Carolina.
Wrice was arrested in 1982 at his Chicago home,
where a woman said she'd been beaten, burned and sexually assaulted by three
men. Wrice has alleged ever since that two police officers ignored his
insistence that he wasn't involved in the attack and beat him until he
confessed.
No physical evidence ties him to the assault, the
victim didn't identify him, and a key witness against him has recanted,
alleging that police tortured him into giving false testimony, his attorneys
argue.
The special prosecutor's office that is handling
Wrice's case has argued that a conviction could stand — even if it involved a
coerced confession — if the person could have been proven guilty without the
confession.
The state Supreme Court has held in the past that
"the use of a defendant's coerced confession as substantive evidence of
his guilt is never harmless error" and that a new trial is always
warranted in those cases.
Heidi Lambros, one of Wrice's attorneys, said she
hopes the high court agreed to take up his case to make its position on the
matter more clear.
"I'm hoping that the Illinois Supreme Court wants
to make ... a proclamation against torture," Lambros said. "I'm
hoping that they do something positive with this."
Both sides can now file briefs. The earliest that
oral arguments could be heard is September.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Illinois Department of Corrections)
