Jackie Wilson, in prison for 36 years in cop slaying, freed days after confession tossed
So, a guy who was convicted on a confession beaten out of him...who all say was not the active shooter..but was only present at the crime, is released on bond. After 36 years....Of course, the special prosecutor in the case vows to retry the issue....
"Jackie Wilson, one of two brothers convicted in one of Chicago’s most infamous cop killings, walked out of Cook County Jail on Friday, a free man for the first time in more than 36 years.
The sudden freedom for Wilson, 57, came after Cook County Circuit Judge William Hooks ordered his release a few hours earlier. The judge had tossed out his murder conviction last week after finding that notorious ex-Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge and detectives under his command had physically coerced his confession.
Saying nearly four decades in prison had aged Wilson “far beyond his chronological age,” Hooks held Friday that he did not pose a danger to the community or a risk to flee — factors in whether he could be released.
The judge also said special prosecutors “utterly failed” in their arguments to keep Wilson in jail, adding that they appeared to want him to view the case “through the lens of a court sitting in 1982 or 1988 without considering the revelations that have come to light over the last three decades.”
Scores of African-American men have accused Burge, who is white, and his colleagues of torturing or abusing them during the 1970s and 1980s at a South Side police station. The scandal has stained the city’s reputation and cost taxpayers at least $115 million so far in lawsuit settlements, judgments and other compensation to victims.
Relatives of slain Officers Richard O’Brien and William Fahey left the Leighton Criminal Court Building without comment after Hooks’ ruling. Special prosecutor Michael O’Rourke said they were understandably upset by the decision.
Kevin Graham, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, who attended the hearing, called Hooks’ ruling “disgraceful.”
“I’m very disappointed that a man that is responsible, who was at the scene, that has admitted to being there when two honored police officers of the Chicago Police Department were murdered, gunned down, and he walks out,” Graham said."
So, a guy who was convicted on a confession beaten out of him...who all say was not the active shooter..but was only present at the crime, is released on bond. After 36 years....Of course, the special prosecutor in the case vows to retry the issue....
"Jackie Wilson, one of two brothers convicted in one of Chicago’s most infamous cop killings, walked out of Cook County Jail on Friday, a free man for the first time in more than 36 years.
The sudden freedom for Wilson, 57, came after Cook County Circuit Judge William Hooks ordered his release a few hours earlier. The judge had tossed out his murder conviction last week after finding that notorious ex-Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge and detectives under his command had physically coerced his confession.
Saying nearly four decades in prison had aged Wilson “far beyond his chronological age,” Hooks held Friday that he did not pose a danger to the community or a risk to flee — factors in whether he could be released.
The judge also said special prosecutors “utterly failed” in their arguments to keep Wilson in jail, adding that they appeared to want him to view the case “through the lens of a court sitting in 1982 or 1988 without considering the revelations that have come to light over the last three decades.”
Scores of African-American men have accused Burge, who is white, and his colleagues of torturing or abusing them during the 1970s and 1980s at a South Side police station. The scandal has stained the city’s reputation and cost taxpayers at least $115 million so far in lawsuit settlements, judgments and other compensation to victims.
Relatives of slain Officers Richard O’Brien and William Fahey left the Leighton Criminal Court Building without comment after Hooks’ ruling. Special prosecutor Michael O’Rourke said they were understandably upset by the decision.
Kevin Graham, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, who attended the hearing, called Hooks’ ruling “disgraceful.”
“I’m very disappointed that a man that is responsible, who was at the scene, that has admitted to being there when two honored police officers of the Chicago Police Department were murdered, gunned down, and he walks out,” Graham said."
