Ronald Kitchen and Marvin Reeves (Illinois Dept. of Corrections photos) |
(WGN-AM)- Two longtime prison inmates whose convictions were linked to alleged torture by discredited former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge will go free after prosecutors today decided not to pursue a new trial.
Ronald Kitchen and Marvin Reeves earlier in the day had been granted a retrial by Cook County Circuit Judge Stanley Sacks on their convictions more than 18 years ago for the 1988 slayings of two women and three children in a Southwest Side home. Prosecutors said the five were suffocated or beaten because of a $1,250 cocaine debt owed Kitchen by one of the women.
Late this morning, Illinois Assistant Atty. Gen. Richard Schwind told Judge Paul Biebel his office had decided after reviewing both cases that it could not sustain its burden of proof and said the state was dropping charges against both men.
Kitchen, 43, who has been in prison since 1990, long has contended that he confessed only because he was tortured. Reeves, 50, has been incarcerated since 1991.
Kitchen originally was sentenced to death but was granted clemency along with other Death Row inmates by former Gov. George Ryan in 2003. Reeves was sentenced to five life terms in prison without parole.
Burge, who had served as commander of detectives in what is now the Calumet Area headquarters, is awaiting trial in federal court in Chicago on charges that he lied in a civil lawsuit to cover up alleged torture. He is now living in Florida.
(The Chicago Tribune contributed to this story)
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Ronald Kitchen and Marvin Reeves earlier in the day had been granted a retrial by Cook County Circuit Judge Stanley Sacks on their convictions more than 18 years ago for the 1988 slayings of two women and three children in a Southwest Side home. Prosecutors said the five were suffocated or beaten because of a $1,250 cocaine debt owed Kitchen by one of the women.
Late this morning, Illinois Assistant Atty. Gen. Richard Schwind told Judge Paul Biebel his office had decided after reviewing both cases that it could not sustain its burden of proof and said the state was dropping charges against both men.
Kitchen, 43, who has been in prison since 1990, long has contended that he confessed only because he was tortured. Reeves, 50, has been incarcerated since 1991.
Kitchen originally was sentenced to death but was granted clemency along with other Death Row inmates by former Gov. George Ryan in 2003. Reeves was sentenced to five life terms in prison without parole.
Burge, who had served as commander of detectives in what is now the Calumet Area headquarters, is awaiting trial in federal court in Chicago on charges that he lied in a civil lawsuit to cover up alleged torture. He is now living in Florida.
(The Chicago Tribune contributed to this story)
Get the latest news at the top and bottom of every hour on Chicago's WGN Radio 720
