4-year probe clears prosecutors, cops in Ford Heights Four case (Chicago Sun-Times, August 22, 2003): Police officers buried evidence. Prosecutors displayed "tunnel vision." Four innocent men went to jail and Death Row for up to 18 years. Cook County officials paid the men a $36 million settlement rather than go to trial over alleged misconduct by authorities. But despite all that, a four-year, $300,000 investigation by Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine's office concluded Thursday that no officer or prosecutor did anything in the so-called Ford Heights Four case that warrants criminal charges. It was a "perfect storm" of mistakes, miscues, witnesses giving false testimony and poor defense lawyering that could not be repeated, said former Appellate Justice Gino Divito, who spearheaded the investigation.
No criminal charges.
Indeed.
Police kept exculpatory information in a file, which prosecutors apparently knew about, but didn't ask to see -- testimony with the actual names of the true murderers. Prosecutors suborned perjury from a witness.
And yet, there are no criminal offenses.
Actually, this is pretty much par for the course for the Cook County state's attorney's office. The Chicago Reader has done a periodic series (unfortunately, now behind a pay article shield) on police torture in Chicago. The most recent article, from two weeks ago, noted that despite many credible allegations, despite convictions that have been overturned due to these allegations, despite people being granted clemency and being released from prison because the governor found that the evidence indicated their actual innocence -- despite all that, the Cook County State's Attorney has never found cause to properly investigate these charges. According to the Reader, there exists a gruesome alliance between the judiciary and the state's attorney office and the police that prevents proper investigation -- attorneys who represented the state on some of these dubious cases move into private practice, represent the officers alleged to have committed this torture, and then become judges and hear later cases regarding these officers. Essentially it works out that the people who should be operating in the public interest to investigate these cases have personal vested interests in preventing such investigations.
Of course, if they're just going to whitewash the results like this, I suppose they might as well not bother, at that.
Posted by iain at August 22, 2003 11:20 AM
