CHICAGO, July 26 (UPI) -- The Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission said it found credible evidence that police tortured confessions out of five men convicted of murder.
The cases will now be assigned to a Cook County Criminal Court judge to decide whether new trials are warranted, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Officers involved in four of the five cases include Chicago Cmdr. Jon Burge or detectives who worked on his crew, the report said.
Burge is serving a 4 1/2-year sentence in federal prison for lying under oath about his knowledge of the alleged torture.
One of the victims, Anthony Jakes, was 15 when two detectives punched him and threatened to throw him out of a window during a 16-hour interrogation, the report said.
Jakes then signed a four-page confession for a 1991 armed robbery and slaying and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was paroled last month, records indicate.
Another victim who doctors said was a paranoid schizophrenic confessed to a killing after he was allegedly beaten.
"One characteristic of the Burge cases ... is the coercion of confessions from the mentally handicapped and psychologically vulnerable," said the court filing in that case.
The commission was created in 2011 and has found 17 credible instances of torture since the investigations began, the Tribune said.
More than 100 additional claims have been filed.
