In wrongful conviction cases, witnesses must be free to set the record straight

True justice reform cannot exist if a wrench is thrown into any proceeding tied to a wrongful conviction.

Here in Chicago, which was once infamously described in a "60 Minutes” segment as the nation's "false confession capital," and elsewhere in Illinois, thwarting such proceedings in any way signals a hesitation to rectify the grave abuses that led to the incarceration of hundreds of innocent men and women.

It's unclear whether that's what happened under new Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, who was accused Monday by a well-known defense attorney of directing her prosecutors to threaten a man with perjury charges to scare him and other witnesses away from recanting their testimonies in a case associated with disgraced former Chicago Police Detective Reynaldo Guevara. The prosecutor in the case denies the accusation.

But what is clear is this: Chicago and Cook County can never go back to the days when wrongful convictions were covered up and defended, with innocent people victimized and spending years in prison for crimes they did not commit.

In Guevara's case, dozens of cases, including murders, investigated by the detective have been thrown out because of allegations of misconduct by Guevara.

A threat, or just good advice?

Being tough on crime, as O’Neill Burke has vowed to do, is a prosecutor's job. But that job must be carried out by the book. It cannot mean that witnesses are made to feel intimidated when they say they are ready to speak out and set the record straight.

That was what Wilfredo Torres said he experienced last month when he was discouraged to take the stand by the head of the state’s attorney’s post-conviction unit, just a day after O’Neill Burke was sworn-in.

Assistant State’s Attorney Linda Walls recommended that Torres consult with a lawyer before testifying that Guevara beat him and forced him to identify Tyrece Williams as his 15-year-old friend Peter Cruz's killer.

"I don’t know what that decision may or may not be, should the Class 3 felony be committed under oath," Walls told Judge Carol Howard at the time. "But as an assistant state’s attorney, I cannot let a citizen commit a felony without having counsel."

Torres took that missive as a threat.

None of the other witnesses who recanted testimony in 49 cases involving Guevara were given the same warning, as Sun-Times reporter Matthew Hendrickson noted.

Torres' lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, is a seasoned civil rights and criminal defense attorney who suggested the incident was O’Neill Burke's blunt way of proclaiming there's "a new sheriff in town." Bonjean has represented a number of clients who were eventually exonerated, so she knows a thing or two about wrongful convictions and how cases are handled.

Chicago taxpayers are equally well versed — about the millions of dollars that police misconduct and wrongful convictions have cost them.

Just for Guevara, so far, they have paid nearly $36 million to defend him in more than three dozen lawsuits, and over $60 million to settle six lawsuits filed by Chicagoans who said they were the victimized by him.

Torres says he was among those victims.

According to testimony from Torres on Monday, Guevara punched him in the stomach and slammed him into a wall when he — Torres was 15 at the time — didn't go along with Guevara when the detective whipped out a picture of Williams and announced he was Cruz's shooter.

Torres was eventually released from police custody when he identified Williams in a line-up. Still, Guevara remained a fixture in Torres's life, showing up in his neighborhood and pestering him to show up for the trial for the 1990 murder, Torres said.

Walls took shots at Torres's credibility during cross-examination Monday, pointing out that Torres had never told anyone that he had falsely identified Wiliams up until last year, and that he didn’t mention Guevara by name in a statement he signed with the Exoneration Project. She made fair points.

Prosecutors are supposed to challenge defense witnesses and poke holes in their stories. They just shouldn't keep them from telling them.

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The Sun-Times welcomes letters to the editor and op-eds. See our guidelines.