The Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression recently launched a campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture (CFIST). The goal of CFIST is to mount a mass campaign for our new Governor, J.B. Pritzker (217-782-6831), to issue pardons for all people tortured by the Chicago Police Department into giving confessions that ultimately led to their incarceration.
Join the Chicago Alliance and the Next Movement of Trinity United Church of Christ for a discussion on a strategy for this movement to free incarcerated survivors of police torture. Panelists include:
Atty. Stan Willis, Founded and Co-Chaired âBlack People Against Police Tortureâ, Civil Rights Attorney
La Tanya Sublett, Female torture survivor and former prisoner
Mark Clements, Torture survivor who served 28 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit
Atty. Joey Mogul, Co-Founder of Chicago Torture Justice Memorials, Partner at Peopleâs Law Office
Moderated by Frank Chapman, co-chairperson and field organizer of The Alliance
The event is sponsored by CAARPR, the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture and the Next Movement of Trinity United Church of Christ.
Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and the Next Movement of Trinity United Church of Christ
Lawyers and two former imprisoned torture survivors make short presentations on the history, their history, in this forty year fight back for justice to put to end to the impunity of racist cops in Chicago who have been protected by their counter parts in the City Council. During the audience participation many of the assembled were mothers and relatives of men who were tortured by long identified criminal Chicago Police Officers. Yet their children and relatives remain in prison, hostage to a corrupt judicial and political system, even when their convictions are eligible for reversal. To date over 50 men have had their convictions overturned; more than 100 still await justice. Many of these men had been on death row awaiting their murder by the State until out going Governor George Ryan issued pardons of life in prison.
At 1:57:11 as the program was about to end, there was a call from the audience for Mary Johnson to speak about her son Michael Johnson and the forty year campaign to see him freed following his conviction on a tortured confession. She mentions being in the court room alone supporting her son, while family were too afraid of police retribution to be present or speak out. Her sons framing by police is from a time when reporting police abuse was likely to end in ones own false arrest and conviction; when judges did not want to hear black people state that cops beat them and lied about it.
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