Chicago, stop spending millions on 'pinstripe patronage' to defend police torture, wrongful conviction cases

In the last few months, two separate Chicago juries returned record verdicts in two wrongful conviction cases. On Sept. 9, a federal court jury returned a $50 million verdict in favor of Marcel Brown, a Black man who was wrongfully convicted and spent nearly 10 years in prison on the basis of a coerced confession and other fabricated evidence. The city, whose settlement offer was reportedly $3 million, was represented by private lawyers who, along with several other defense firms, have collected $150 million of “pinstripe patronage” for decades from the city for representing police officials in police torture and other wrongful conviction cases

in August, another federal jury returned a $22.5 million verdict in favor of the estate of William Amor, who was wrongfully convicted of an arson-murder and spent more than 20 years in prison on the basis of a false confession that was coerced from him by Naperville detectives. Naperville subsequently settled the case for $25.5 million. And on Sept. 18, City Council approved a $10.6 million settlement in favor of Anthony Jakes, who was tortured by detectives working under the notorious Jon Burge and spent 20 years in prison. In these two cases, the defendants were represented by a longtime “pinstripe” lawyer who had defended Burge himself in several earlier torture lawsuits. In the Jakes case, Chicago paid an additional $2.25 million to its pinstripe team.

These awards highlight long-standing, systemic problems that have continued under Mayor Brandon Johnson and his corporation counsel. Johnson campaigned on a platform that condemned police torture and wrongful convictions, and promised fair compensation to its victims. Civil rights lawyers proposed a new approach that would rid the city of the “pinstripe” lawyers while creating a mediation process that would be employed early in the litigation and apply fair monetary ranges for wrongful conviction and other police violence cases.

To date, 18 months after Johnson took office, the mayor and his top lawyer have refused to implement this or any other reform. Instead, they have continued "business as usual," with catastrophic results.

In the Burge cases, the same pinstripe lawyers continue to implement their “bill and obstruct” game plan, denying in court what mayors, including Johnson, and numerous politicians have publicly admitted: that the Chicago Police Department had long-standing practices of torture leading to wrongful convictions, fostered by a pervasive code of silence.

A ‘staggering’ amount of money

Redoubling their previous efforts, these lawyers recently moved to recuse the only Black federal judge who, in the past 35 years, has been assigned to sit on the score of torture cases that have wended their way through the local federal courts. After the judge rejected the motion, the corporation counsel personally authorized an appeal that was summarily rejected by the higher court.

In the Jackie Wilson case (I am one of Wilson’s lawyers) a criminal court judge had ruled that Jackie and his brother Andrew had been brutally tortured by Burge and several of his detective crew, including Thomas McKenna. During the criminal proceedings that resulted in the judge’s determination that Jackie was innocent, McKenna and Burge wisely took the Fifth Amendment. But McKenna, now represented by another firm of "pinstripe lawyers," has flaunted the judicial finding that he tortured Wilson, and denied under oath in Wilson’s civil case that he did so.

The money that Chicago, Cook County, and the state have expended over the past two decades in Burge torture and wrongful conviction cases is staggering. According to public records, Chicago has paid $49.25 million to outside lawyers; $118.75 million to survivors of police torture; and another $50.5 million in pensions to Burge (now deceased) and his confederates, for a total of $218.5 million. Additionally, the county has paid $40 million, and the state $10 million, for a grand total of $268.5 million.

The total payouts made by Chicago alone in all wrongful conviction cases, according to a study recently released by the Truth Hope and Justice Initiative, is three-quarters of a billion dollars: $600 million to the victims and $150 million going to the consortium of pinstripe lawyers.

The city, the mayor and the corporation counsel are now at a very public financial crossroads. Scores of pending torture and other wrongful conviction cases remain to be resolved. A continued “head in the sand” approach could cost the taxpayers many times more than if they — the mayor and corporation counsel — wake up, smell the coffee, and institute reforms that will result in a fair, speedy, and equitable resolution of these cases, for both the victims and the taxpayers.

Flint Taylor is a founding partner of the People’s Law Office and has represented numerous police torture and wrongful conviction survivors.

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