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Death Row deal rejected---Inmate says no to Devine's offer
(source: Chicago Tribune)
Death row prisoner Aaron Patterson said
that he would rebuff any offer
from Cook County State's Atty. Richard
Devine that calls for him to admit
guilt and abandon his long-standing
claims of police torture for the
chance to go free.
Patterson said Devine's office has made
an overture about a deal that
would allow him to be released within
a few years if he admits his guilt
to the 1986 double murder that sent
him to death row and he drops his
claim that he was tortured by former
Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge and
his detectives.
"Much as I'd like to get out of here.
... I'm going to stay until we get
this thing right," Patterson said in
a telephone interview Sunday from
death row at the Pontiac Correctional
Center. "I'm pretty much certain
they know now I didn't do it, but they're
trying to wiggle their way out
of it.
"But I'm not so frantic that I just
want to get out," said Patterson, who
has been on death row since his 1989
conviction. "If you're innocent,
you've got to make your stand."
Devine has made offers or begun discussions
with several other death row
inmates--all of whom claim that their
confessions were obtained through
torture by either Burge or his detectives
in the old Burnside Area on the
South Side.
The overtures come as inmates claiming
torture have made significant
gains in the courts, where they are
seeking new trials. The Illinois
Supreme Court last year granted Patterson
a hearing so he could argue his
long-standing claim that he was tortured
by Burge's detectives.
The plea negotiations with some Death
Row prisoners represent a
significant turnaround by Devine's
office, which has opposed most of
their efforts.
John Gorman, a spokesman for Devine,
said it is office policy not to
comment on plea negotiations and that
the office's handling of the
Burge-related cases had not changed.
The office, he said, is dealing with
each case individually and not viewing
them as a group. In some
instances, witnesses have died or changed
their accounts, he said.
"We're going to address Aaron Patterson's
case in court when it comes up
the way we address any of these cases,"
Gorman said Monday.
As for Patterson's claim that he is
innocent, Gorman said: "I understand
that is his position, that he's innocent.
That's not our position."
Patterson said he wants to continue
to pursue his case and that he is
well aware that if he loses, he could
remain on death row and face
execution.
"Man, I'm innocent, and I want them
to either drop the case or give me a
new trial and a reasonable bond. That's
my position," Patterson said.
Patterson's attorneys declined to comment Monday.
The plea negotiations by Devine in this
case are similar to those
undertaken in the Ford Heights 4 case,
another high-profile Cook County
prosecution. In that case, 4 men were
convicted of the 1978 murders of
a south suburban couple, and 2 of the
defendants were sentenced to death.
The convictions began to unravel in
the mid-1990s, when the Illinois
Supreme Court ordered a new trial for
death row inmate Verneal Jimerson.
Before a new trial was held, Cook County
prosecutors under then State's
Atty. Jack O'Malley offered Jimerson
his freedom if he would plead guilty
to one count of murder, said Mark Ter
Molen, Jimerson's attorney.
Jimerson, who had spent 11 years on
death row while maintaining his
innocence, turned down the deal and
was eventually exonerated by DNA
evidence, as were his three co-defendants.
The 4 men, who collectively
served 65 years for crimes they did
not commit, subsequently sued the
county for wrongful prosecution. Rather
than risk a trial, the county
--with advice from Devine--settled
the suits for $36 million, an
unprecedented amount for a wrongful
prosecution case.
Ter Molen said that in making the offer,
prosecutors "were concerned with
saving face." They hoped that an admission
of guilt from one of the
defendants would help validate their
prosecution of all 4, he said.
More recently, convicted murderer Darrell
Cannon agreed last January to
drop his torture claim in exchange
for a deal that will set him free
sometime in 2003. At the time, Cannon
was pressing his torture claim in
Cook County Circuit Court and winning
some crucial rulings.
Patterson, in the Sunday telephone interview,
said that Devine's overture
mentioned a "Cannon-ish" deal--meaning
freedom in a few years if he
admitted guilt.
Patterson has maintained his innocence
since his arrest, and he has
insisted for just as long that the
confession that police said they
obtained was a product of torture--including
having a plastic typewriter
cover put over his head.
While in custody, Patterson used the
sharp end of a paper clip to etch a
message into a metal bench in the interrogation
room where police were
holding him.
The message, which an investigator later
photographed, read: "Aaron 4/30
I lie about murders. Police threaten
me with violence. Slapped and
suffocated me with plastic. No lawyer
or dad. No phone. Signed false
statement to murders."
Patterson was a leader of one of the
city's most violent street gangs
when he was charged with the April
1986 murders of Vincent Sanchez, 73,
and his wife, Rafaela, 62. The 2, who
had been stabbed repeatedly, were
found dead in their home in South Chicago.
No physical evidence linked Patterson
or his co-defendant to the crimes.
But detectives working for Burge said
that the 2 confessed.
(source: Chicago Tribune)
**********
Devine offers death row deal--Inmates
who drop cop torture claims may
gain freedom
In a stunning turnabout, Cook County
State's Atty. Richard Devine has
begun to discuss deals with a handful
of death row inmates who have
long-standing claims they were tortured
to confess by Chicago Police
Cmdr. Jon Burge and his detectives,
according to sources close to the
cases.
The deals, the sources said, would give
the convicted murderers who once
faced execution a chance at freedom.
But in exchange, the inmates would
have to drop their claims of torture
and plead guilty--even though some
insist they are innocent.
Among the inmates who either have received
an offer or had some
discussion about a plea agreement are
Derrick King, Stanley Howard,
Andrew Maxwell and Aaron Patterson,
according to several sources familiar
with the negotiations.
In other cases, Devine's prosecutors
have approached defense lawyers and,
as one lawyer who is involved said,
"talked about talking." Lawyers for
some of the inmates, such as Madison
Hobley, have not been contacted.
Maxwell, according to sources, is closest
to reaching a deal. But it
would call for him to still serve a
significant number of years, in large
part because he has other convictions.
Some of the other deals under
discussion could result in release
much sooner, the sources said.
John Gorman, Devine's spokesman, declined
to comment, saying the office
does not discuss ongoing plea bargain
negotiations.
Devine's effort seems to have a dual
purpose--heading off the possibility
of additional legal victories by the
defendants and putting aside a
controversial matter that stubbornly
remains in Cook County courts.
Guilty plea a problem
The offers present problems for the
defendants and their families--
particularly those who have maintained
their innocence. Though they want
to win their freedom, they do not want
to admit guilt to something they
insist they did not do.
"It just hurts my heart--that the state
would give us a decision like
this when my son is innocent," said
the mother of one defendant. "They
don't want to hear the innocent part.
They just want it to go away. I
don't know if it's worth it.
"I'm totally insulted and hurt. There are other ways of being free."
The allegations against Burge and his
detectives are some of the most
explosive in Chicago police history.
For close to a decade, defendants in
those cases have sought new trials
and evidentiary hearings to present
evidence showing their confessions
were tainted by torture.
For just as long, prosecutors have vigorously
opposed the efforts,
arguing the defendants did not have
convincing evidence of torture.
Prosecutors also have disputed the
defendants' innocence claims.
But over the past couple of years, several
of the defendants have begun
to make significant gains and win some
key legal challenges.
The Illinois Supreme Court last year
granted King and Patterson hearings
to present evidence of their allegations.
The state's highest court also has granted
Howard a hearing, in part
based on documents that show his torture
claims were reinvestigated by
the Police Department and determined
to have merit.
Police said those internal cases were
later closed by top officials and
the defendants were not told of the
findings until much later.
Maxwell has a hearing pending before
U.S. District Judge Milton Shadur,
who has used unusually strong language
to describe allegations of torture.
"It is now common knowledge," Shadur
wrote when he granted Maxwell a
hearing, "that in the early- to mid-1980s,
Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge
and many officers working under him
regularly engaged in the physical
abuse and torture of prisoners to extract
confessions."
Finally, in January, Cook County prosecutors
struck a deal with convicted
murderer Darrell Cannon. In exchange
for dropping his claim, Cannon
pleaded guilty to a lesser charge that
calls for him to be set free in 2003.
That deal was brokered as Cannon's hearing
was under way--and after he
had won some key rulings--but before
prosecutors had put on their case,
which would have involved Chicago police
detectives testifying.
Lawyers in some of the cases also are
being allowed to conduct
depositions of some detectives and
other investigative work that may shed
more light on what happened in the
South Side violent crime squad that
Burge led.
Beatings, shocks alleged
Among the claims by the defendants are
that they confessed only after
they were beaten, had guns pointed
at them, were subjected to electric
shocks or nearly suffocated by Burge
or his detectives placing typewriter
covers over their heads.
Burge was fired by the Chicago Police
Board in 1993 for his role in the
torture of Andrew Wilson while Wilson
was being questioned in the murders
of 2 police officers. Wilson was convicted
and sentenced to death, but
his conviction was overturned. He was
convicted again and got a life
sentence.
Devine's efforts to reach deals also
come as defense attorneys and others
are seeking to have a special prosecutor
appointed to investigate the
Burge-related cases. They argue that
Devine, who once appeared in court
with Burge because his law firm was
defending him, has a conflict.
Moreover, they say the issue needs to
be thoroughly investigated and
publicly aired with an eye toward criminal
charges against some of the
key players.
Devine, in court papers, has argued
that statutes of limitations make any
prosecution impossible. He says, too,
that the torture charges have not
been proved.
(source: Chicago Tribune)
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