URGENT!
CHICAGO POLICE TORTURE SURVIVOR DARRELL CANNON MUST BE FREE!

In late August, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board will hear arguments that Darrell Cannon - locked up for the last 20 years on the strength of a statement extracted by police torture - should be released from prison. A few months ago, faced with a new hearing into allegations of police torture, the Cook County State's Attorney's office dropped ALL charges against Darrell Cannon. Yet instead of returning to the embrace of his family, Darrell Cannon remains locked in solitary confinement in Tamms Supermax prison, and must await the determination of the Board, who will be deciding whether or not hold Darrell Cannon in violation of his parole. Should they decide against Darrell Cannon, he could remain in prison til his death. It is crucial that people urge the Board to let Darrell Cannon go - and come to the hearing being held at Statesville Correctional Center in Joliet, Illinois.

For the last 20 years, Darrell Cannon has been speaking out against police torture - an issue he knew from personal experience, having been tortured by a gang of Chicago police detectives associated with the notorious police torturer Lt. Jon Burge. Picked up for "questioning" in relation to a drug-related killing, Darrell was taken by police to a secluded area on Chicago's south side where they beat him and repeatedly shocked him with cattle prods on his mouth and on his penis. He told them whatever they needed to hear so that the pain would stop.

He has been through two trials - the first overturned in large part because the presiding judge was found guilty of taking bribes and the blatant racism by prosecutors in jury selection . The second overturned because the judges - one a former associate of Jon Burge - barred testimony from police torture victims. Beginning in the summer of 1999, suppression hearings were held during which a number of other victims of police torture testified against some of the same officers that tortured Darrell Cannon. Before that hearing ended and a decision for a new trial reached, the State's Attorney's office offered a deal that Darrell Cannon could not refuse - an early release from prison in exchange for a plea to a lesser charge. It was a cynical attempt to play on the hard choice Darrell Cannon faced of spending many more years in prison - even if he ultimately won in court - versus the immediate needs of being reunited with family. Darrell Cannon agreed to the deal - which merely led to the Catch-22 revocation of his parole for an prior conviction by the Illinois Review Board - using that very plea arrangement with the State's Attorney's office.

After years of trying to change the Board's decision - during which the date for his "release" had passed - Darrell Cannon's lawyers filed to withdraw the plea and continue to deman a new trial. This time, rather than endure more politically embarassing testimony by victims of Burge-related police torture, the State's Attorney's office dropped all charges against Darrell Cannon. All fairness would dictate that his release would be a given. But fairness is a word that can never be used with the criminal justice system. The Illinois Prisoner Review board is now trying to determine other reasons for violating Darrell Cannon's parole - and if they do that - he will likely remain in prison for the rest of his life. This outrage can not be allowed to occur.

To contact the Illinois Prisoner Review Board:

319 E. Madison St. Suite A
Springfield, IL 62701
Phone (217) 782-7273
Fax: (217) 524-0012

For more information:

Surviving Police Torture: The Story of Darrell Cannon, Virus X, Revolutionary Worker #1007, May 23, 1999

The Chicago Inquisition, Stories of Police Torture, Revolutionary Worker #1068, August 27, 2000

What Price Freedom?, John Conroy, Chicago Reader, March 2, 2001

Poison in the System, John Conroy, Chicago Reader, June 25, 1999

Trial by Torture Sasha Abramsky, Mother Jones, March 3, 2000