Chicago awards $10 million to torture victim

The Chicago City Council has voted to award $10 million to a man who spent more than two decades in prison for a double murder he didn’t commit.

Eric Caine’s conviction in the 1986 slayings of Vincent and Rafaela Sanchez was largely based on a false confession made after he was physically abused by detectives under former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge. Burge is serving 4½ years in prison for lying under oath by testifying in a lawsuit that he’d never witnessed or participated in the torture of suspects.

Wednesday’s vote by the city council brings to nearly $70 million in compensation awarded victims of alleged abuse and misconduct connected to Burge that has been handed out by Chicago.

Caine spent 25 years in prison before being exonerated in 2011.