Charges dropped in Chicago police torture case

CHICAGO (AP) - Cook County prosecutors have dropped charges against a man authorities determined was tortured by Chicago police into implicating himself in the 1989 slayings of two men.

James Gibson was convicted of first-degree murder and was serving a life sentence until an appellate court last month granted him a new trial. A Cook County judge set a $20,000 bond, allowing him to be released from prison after he served 28 years.

In dropping charges against Gibson on Friday for the murders of Lloyd Benjamin and Hunter Wash, special prosecutor Robert Milan cited the death of a key witness, uncooperative remaining witnesses and the "passage of time."

The 53-year-old Gibson claimed he was tortured by detectives under the command of Jon Burge, the former Chicago police commander who led a team accused of torturing suspects between 1972 and 1991. Chicago has paid tens of millions of dollars to Burge victims.