| Contents |
Murder by darkness : the assassination of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark -- The Wilson case : and he just kept on cranking and cranking... -- Street files and important trials -- The first Wilson civil rights trial -- The cover-up begins to unravel -- Déjà vu -- The fight for justice broadens -- Out of the court and into the streets -- Fire Burge! -- Burge on trial again -- A parade and an appeal -- The Vigilante, Aaron Peterson, and a judgment against Burge -- The Marcus Wiggins case : "They're supposed to serve and protect, right?" -- Decisions, decisions -- An it seemed like they blew my brains out -- Those idiots from the People's Law Office -- A landmark victory, a plea, and a tragedy -- Special prosecutors, clemencies, and pardons -- Free at last -- Freedom denied -- An open secret -- The Daley show -- Broadening the struggle against police torture -- The tale of two reports -- Beyond all reasonable doubt -- The art of the no deal -- Hearings, hearings, and more hearings -- The feds come marching in -- The worm turns -- Exonerations -- Burge in the dock -- A modicum of justice -- Delay the defendant -- On what planet... -- Reparations now! -- Never before in America -- Coming full circle -- Wilson walks -- Epilogue. |
| Abstract |
"With his colleagues at the People's Law Office (PLO), Taylor has argued landmark civil rights cases that have exposed corruption and cover-ups within the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and throughout the city's corrupt political machine. The Torture Machine takes the reader from the 1969 murders of Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton and Panther Mark Clark--and the historic thirteen years of litigation that followed--through the dogged pursuit of commander Jon Burge, the leader of a torture ring within the CPD that used barbaric methods, including electric shock, to elicit false confessions from suspects. Joining forces with community activists, torture survivors and their families, other lawyers, and local reporters, Taylor and the PLO gathered evidence from multiple cases to bring suit against the CPD officers and the City of Chicago. As the struggle expanded beyond the torture scandal to the ultimately successful campaign to end the death penalty in Illinois, and obtained reparations for many of the torture survivors, it set human rights precedents that have since been adopted across the United States"--Jacket. |
