Former Chicago police commander tied to torture dies

Former Chicage police Cmdr. Jon Burge, whose name became synonymous with torture, dozens of tainted court convictions and more than $100 million in city settlements with wrongfully convicted defendants who lost decades of their lives in prison, has died in Florida at 70, according to Chicago's Fraternal Order of Police.

Burge, a commander at Area 2 on the South Side, headed a "midnight crew" of officers accused of systemic abuse of black suspects. The cases stretched from the 1970s to 1991 and drew the attention of the London-based human rights organization Amnesty International, which called for an inquiry.

As victim Darrell Cannon put it in 2015, he was tortured by "a New Wave Klan" that "wore badges, instead of sheets." His murder conviction was thrown out.

In 2011, Burge was sentenced to 4½ years for lying under oath in lawsuits connected to the torture. After being released early for good behavior, he went to a halfway house near his Florida home, followed by home confinement.

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