Activists: 'Use UN report to address wrongful convictions'
A group of mothers who say their sons have been kidnapped by the Illinois Department of Corrections are asking outgoing Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx to use a UN report as a catalyst to release from prison more people who say that police tortured them into confessing to crimes.
At a protest rally marking Wrongful Conviction Day, Erica Bentley of Chicago's Mothers of the Kidnapped and MAMAS Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity was among activists who shared disappointment with the lengthy delays for the resolution of decades-old post-conviction proceedings on dozens of cases.
"Kim Foxx embraced our members and said 'I got you'.... but Kim Foxx's ASA's have continued to fight the appeals of our members sons," Bentley said.
After meeting with the MAMAS, the United Nations in June 2024 issued a 26-page report authored by a team of five international experts that asked Illinois leaders including Kim Foxx, Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Governor J. B. Pritzker, to address concerns of policing, racial profiling, torture, human rights violations, false confessions and wrongful convictions.
The UN experts acknowledged that some steps have been taken to remedy and prevent police torture and misconduct, but the experts said that efforts to address abuses have been piecemeal and slow in implementation.
"There have also been efforts to improve the capacity of the Office of the Illinois
Attorney General to address wrongful conviction through the development of the
Conviction Review Unit. However, it is unclear if the unit has the capacity to effectively review cases in a timely manner," the experts wrote.
The UN experts said that the pardoning power of the Illinois Governor and the president of the United States "do not appear to have been used even though systemic police misconduct, torture and ill treatment in Chicago has been publicly acknowledged. They acknowledged that people may die in prison if the state continues at the current pace.
The UN experts asked Illinois leaders to respond in 60 days to a list of 12 concerns, including updates on individual cases.
“Lives have been stolen, with a significant ripple effect within communities,” the report said.
Thus far the activists haven't received acknowledgement or insight into how Illinois plans to respond to the UN experts.
Bentley called upon Foxx to take action.
"Let your legacy be that you have reunited families and communities," Bentley said. "Use the UN mandate as backing to right these wrongs."
