A Panel Discussion Featuring:
*Darrell Cannon, wrongfully convicted police torture victim; released after
23 years behind bars.
*Caroline Johnson, mother of Marcus Wiggins, who was tortured at age 13 by
Chicago police
*Julien Ball, Campaign to End the Death Penalty
AND
* a live call-in from a death row prisoner via speaker-phone connection

George W. Bush recently made the shocking admission that he authorized torture against prisoners in the so-called "war on terror". But torture is nothing new here in Chicago. Between 1973 and 1993, white Chicago police officers under former Commander Jon Burge used electro-shock to the ears and
genitals, suffocation with plastic bags, severe beatings and Russian roulette to get more than 100 African-American men to "confess" to crimes in Area 2 and Area 3 police stations. Some of these men, the Death Row 10, were sentenced to death. Dozens remain in prisons based on confessions obtained through torture, while Jon Burge collects a generous pension from the police department.

Before he left office in 2003, former Illinois Governor George Ryan declared the death penalty system "haunted by the demon of error", pardoned four of the Death Row 10 and commuted the sentences of all 167 death row inmates. Today, Illinois' death row is beginning to fill up again, with Philip Pate becoming the 15th death row inmate in March. Meanwhile, the courts have yet
to provide justice for dozens of torture victims, and racial bias and inequality continue to plague the death penalty system.

Come hear the stories of men and women who have experienced police torture and the death penalty first-hand. Join us in a discussion of how we can abolish the death penalty, win justice for police torture victims and take on the racism of the court system.

Sponsored by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and the Organization of Black Students

For more information, call (773)955-4841; email julien (at) nodeathpenalty.org or tgurmu (at) uchicago.edu.