Man freed 36 years after Chicago cops coerced confession

CHICAGO — Jackie Wilson, one of two brothers convicted of killing two Chicago police officers, walked out of the Cook County Jail on Friday, a free man for the first time in more than 36 years.

The sudden freedom for Wilson, 57, came after Cook County Circuit Judge William Hooks ordered his release a few hours earlier. The judge had tossed out Wilson’s murder conviction after finding that Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge and detectives under his command had physically coerced his confession.

Saying that nearly four decades in prison had aged Wilson “far beyond his chronological age,” Hooks held Friday that he did not pose a danger to the community or a risk to flee — factors in whether he could be released.

The judge also said special prosecutors “utterly failed” in their arguments to keep Wilson in jail. They appeared to want him to view the case “through the lens of a court sitting in 1982 or 1988 without considering the revelations that have come to light over the last three decades,” he said.

Scores of AfricanAmerican men have accused Burge, who is white, and his colleagues of torturing or abusing them during the 1970s and 1980s at a South Side police station. The scandal has stained the city’s reputation and cost taxpayers at least $115 million so far in lawsuit settlements, judgments and other compensation to victims.

Burge was convicted in federal court of perjury and obstruction of justice in 2010 after jurors found he lied when he denied witnessing torture or abusing suspects in connection with a lawsuit. Burge spent 4 years in prison and on home confinement.

As he left the jail, Wilson said he was “happy to be a member of society again.”

“Being a victim of one of a number of Jon Burge’s brutalities,” he said as his voice trailed off and he sighed heavily. “Oh Lord, it’s just, it’s been a rocky ride.”