Court orders new trial in Chicago police torture case
CHICAGO (AP) - A prison inmate serving a life sentence for murder has been granted a new trial after an appellate court determined Chicago police tortured him into implicating himself in the 1989 slayings of two men.
Fifty-three-year-old James Gibson hopes the charges will be dismissed and he'll be set free after three decades behind bars. His attorney, Joel Brodsky, says that after last week's opinion his immediate plan is to ask that Gibson be released from prison on bond.
Gibson says he was tortured by detectives under the command of Jon Burge, the former Chicago police commander who led the "midnight crew" that have been accused of torturing suspects between 1972 and 1991. Burge died last year. Over the years, the city has paid tens of millions of dollars to Burge victims.