Tortured into a False Confession, Freed Two Decades Later

by Matt Kelley · 2010-01-14 16:00:00 UTC
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Michael Tillman was freed today in Chicago after 23 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. He is yet another victim of the reign of terror of former Chicago Detective Jon Burge, who orchestrated the torture of as many as 200 suspects while overseeing detectives on Chicago's South Side in the 1990s.

Tillman has said for two decades that he was tortured into admitting to a crime he didn't commit. Even when another man was arrested and convicted for the murder, however, Tillman's confession stood up in court and he remained imprisoned. He says Chicago detectives waterboarded him with 7-Up, punched him in the face and stomach until he vomited blood and put a plastic bag over his head, and that he gave them a false story to make them stop.

Thanks to Burge and other corrupt detectives, Tillman suffered an unimaginable injustice and the family of the victim in this case has endured years of repeatedly seeing their relative's murder reinvestigated. Nobody wins.

Burge is facing federal charges of obstruction of justice and perjury and could be tried in May. Several defendants have been proven innocent and freed in recent years after spending years in prison based on Burge's bogus evidence. The last two to be freed before Tillman were Ronald Kitchen and Marvin Reeves in July.

But years after Burge's torture tactics were revealed and despite dozens of exonerations across the country proving that false confessions happen, the vast majority of police departments in the United States still don't record interrogations, a sure way to prevent abuse and collect more accurate -- and effective -- evidence for trial.

If the injustice suffered by Tillman makes you furious, do me a favor. Call your local police department. Ask if they record interrogations in felony cases. If not, urge them to make a change.

(Opinions expressed here are my own.)

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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