Ending a “30-plus year horror story,” the $30 million total settlement for Mr. Wilson is believed to be the largest pre-trial settlement in U.S. history.
CHICAGO — Forty-three years after Jackie Wilson and his brother Andrew were brutally tortured by notorious police Lieutenant Jon Burge and his crew of self-described “asskickers,” Chicago has finally brought to a close one of the most infamous cases of police violence and corruption in the history of the Chicago P.D. Today, the City Council approved a $12.7 million settlement in the lawsuit brought by Jackie Wilson, 65, who was exonerated in 2020 after spending more than 36 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
With a $17 million settlement approved by Cook County in 2024, Mr. Wilson will receive a total of nearly $30 million, which is believed to be the largest pre-trial settlement of a wrongful conviction case in United States history.
Jackie Wilson’s ordeal began in 1982, when he was only 21 years old. On February 9, two Chicago police officers were fatally shot during a traffic stop at 81st and Morgan. They were the second and third officers killed that week, and their murders brought the city to a halt.
Lt. Jon Burge, the commanding Violent Crimes Lieutenant at Area 2, was in charge of the investigation, which has been widely described as a “reign of terror,” the largest and most violent police manhunt in the city’s history. Hundreds of complaints of racially motivated police violence, including at least twelve documented cases of torture, arose under Burge’s command during the manhunt.
Lt. Jon Burge, the commanding Violent Crimes Lieutenant at Area 2, was in charge of the investigation, which has been widely described as a “reign of terror,” the largest and most violent police manhunt in the city’s history. Hundreds of complaints of racially motivated police violence, including at least twelve documented cases of torture, arose under Burge’s command during the manhunt.
Jackie Wilson and his brother Andrew were separately arrested on Feb. 14 and brought to Area 2 headquarters. There, according to Jackie Wilson’s complaint, they were beaten, abused, and tortured over a period of many hours. Burge allegedly held a gun to Andrew’s head—“I’m going to shoot this n——,” he reportedly said, while another detective named in the lawsuit forced his cocked pistol into Jackie’s mouth. Finally, both brothers had wires attached to their bodies, and were tortured repeatedly with electric shocks. Eventually, Jackie told his torturers that he would confess to shooting the president if they would just end the abuse.
On February 4, 1983, a jury convicted the brothers of murder and armed robbery. Andrew Wilson was sentenced to death, and Jackie Wilson was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Both men appealed, but police and prosecutors conspired to suppress evidence that the confessions were coerced through torture. Both men were reconvicted—Jackie of one murder, and Andrew of both—and sentenced to life without parole.
In the decades that followed, while Jackie Wilson sat wrongly imprisoned, the pattern of abuse by Lt. Jon Burge and his colleagues gradually came to light, including evidence that they had tortured dozens and dozens of men. Burge was suspended and eventually fired in the early 1990s, though allowed to keep his pension. He was indicted in 2008, while living retired in Florida, and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison in 2010. Litigation related to his and his officers’ misconduct has subsequently cost taxpayers more than $250 million.
It was not until 2018, however, that Jackie Wilson’s conviction was overturned, and he was granted a new trial on the grounds that he had been tortured. It was the first time that a Cook County Criminal Court Judge made detailed factual findings that documented the racist and systemic pattern of Chicago police torture.
“The abhorrence of basic rights of suspects by Mr. Burge and his underlings has been costly to the taxpayers, the wrongfully convicted, and worst of all, the dozens of victims and their families who have suffered untold,” Judge William H. Hooks declared in his ruling, calling the scandal a “30-plus year horror story.”
In 2020, Jackie Wilson—represented by the brothers’ longtime attorney Flint Taylor of the People’s Law Office, and Elliot Slosar of the civil rights law firm of Loevy and Loevy—went to trial for a third time. This time, with Jackie’s confession thrown out, and insurmountable evidence of the abuses on the part of police and prosecutors, the Special Prosecutors decided to drop all charges mid-trial. Mr. Wilson was finally free, after spending more than 36 years wrongly incarcerated. In December 2020, Judge Hooks granted Mr. Wilson’s petition for a Certificate of Innocence, a finding that he is officially innocent of the crimes in the eyes of the State.
“Jackie Wilson will never be able to recoup the value of his life lost to the living hell he experienced at the hands of his government,” Judge Hooks said. “While Jackie Wilson extraordinarily deserves and has earned this Certificate of Innocence, others deserve to pay for what they have so unjustly caused both directly and indirectly.”
In 2021 Mr. Wilson filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, naming as defendants the late Lt. Burge (who died in 2018), several former CPD officers and employees, several Assistant State’s Attorneys, former Mayor Richard M. Daley, the City of Chicago, and Cook County. The lawsuit charged them with multiple counts of violating Mr. Wilson’s civil rights under federal and state laws, including malicious prosecution, coercive interrogation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and conspiracy. In addition to Flint and Slosar, the family is represented by Nora Snyder of the People’s Law Office, and Jon Loevy and Scott Rauscher of Loevy + Loevy.
In March 2024, rather than go to a jury trial, Cook County decided to settle its portion of the lawsuit for $17 million. Today, the Chicago City Council voted to settle its responsibility for an additional $12.7 million.
Mr. Wilson reacted emotionally to the approval of the settlement.
“I’ve been living with this nightmare most of my life now, and I’m so relieved to finally be moving on,” he said. “I could have given up a long time ago, but I knew I had to see this through, not just for me, but all the men out there just like me who went through what I did, or worse. They all deserve a day like today.”
It is a sentiment echoed by Mr. Wilson’s attorneys.
“No amount of money will ever give Jackie 36 years of his life back,” says attorney Elliot Slosar. “Each day, Jackie suffers from a living nightmare: his life was stolen by corrupt police and prosecutors hellbent on obtaining his wrongful conviction. We are pleased that after all these years the City decided to do the right thing and settle this case. In 12.7 million ways, the City recognized the serious injustice that Jackie suffered. Through the historic settlements with the City of Chicago and Cook County, totaling nearly $30 million, Jackie can move forward with his life knowing that he will not have to suffer through years of unnecessary litigation.”
On Juneteenth of 2023, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson proclaimed that “under my watch, we will make sure that the brutal history of police brutality is fully addressed,” and his transition team announced a “strategy” of “ensur[ing] reparations for survivors of police violence, torture, and false confessions,” that included “provid[ing] monetary compensation.”
Attorney Flint Taylor, who has been one of the leading lawyers during the entire four-decade history of the Wilson cases, said today that this settlement, and the closure that it promotes, is an important step in furtherance of the Mayor’s promises.
“After spending 40 years fighting for justice in the Wilson torture cases, I am gratified that we have finally closed the circle with first the County, and now the Johnson administration, recognizing by their settlements the egregious and wrongful harm that Jackie Wilson suffered for that entire time at the hands of Jon Burge, his henchmen, Cook County prosecutors, and a host of other City and County high ranking officials as part of a systemic pattern and practice of police torture and cover-up”
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For a copy of the complaint in this case, click here.
Contact:
Elliot Slosar, Attorney, Loevy + Loevy, 630-740-3698, elliot@loevy.com
Flint Taylor, Attorney, People’s Law Office, 773-616-3736, flinttaylor@peopleslawoffice.com
Michael McDunnah, Communications Director, Loevy + Loevy, 312-371-5871, mcdunnah@loevy.com
