Vol. 75/No. 36      October 10, 2011

The Illinois Supreme Court heard arguments September 15 for and against upholding a 2010 state appeals court decision that would clear the way for giving Wrice a new hearing.

Wrice, convicted in 1983 for rape, was sentenced to 100 years in prison. In 1991 he appealed his conviction on the grounds that Sgt. John Byrne and Detective Peter Dignan tortured statements out of him. The Cook County Circuit Court dismissed the appeal and the appellate court upheld the dismissal. Wrice appealed again in 2000 with similar results.

In 2006, a Report of the Special State’s Attorney detailed a nearly four-year investigation into abuse by Chicago police based on 148 complaints. The report concluded that there was sufficient evidence to prosecute several cops, but that the statute of limitations precluded doing so.

Among the officers cited, the report documented the actions of Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge and implicated both Byrne and Dignan.

A year later Wrice filed his third appeal. While the circuit court rejected his petition again, this time the appeals court granted Wrice a new evidentiary hearing.

Myles O’Rourke, arguing on behalf of Cook County, urged the court to overturn the appellate court’s decision. He didn’t challenge the coerced nature of the confession, but said it was a “harmless error” because, he conjectured, the jury would have convicted Wrice without the confession.

“The law in Illinois is the use of a physically tortured confession is never harmless error and this court has not wavered from that finding,” responded Heidi Linn Lambros, Wrice’s attorney.

“The last thing the jury heard … was the state flippantly and mockingly saying, ‘You must disbelieve Mr. Wrice when he says that Byrne and Dignan beat him in the basement of Area 2 police station.’”

More than 60 prominent attorneys led by former Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson filed a brief demanding new hearings for 15 prisoners who were convicted on the basis of confessions under threats and torture.

“I think the Supreme Court is going to uphold the appellate court decision and grant Mr. Wrice a new hearing,” Lambros told the Militant.

In a related development, attorneys for former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley petitioned a U.S. district judge to reconsider a decision that Daley be a defendant in the cop torture suit brought by Michael Tillman against Burge, other cops, and local government officials
 
 
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