CHICAGO (CBS) — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday commuted the sentence of Gerald Reed, who said he was tortured into a double murder confession.
claims he had been tortured into falsely confessing to the 1990 slayings of Pamela Powers and Willie Williams by officers under the command of late disgraced Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge.
Reed’s conviction was overturned, and a new trial was granted.
However, a judge in February 2020 threw out that ruling and ruled that Reed should stay in prison.
Reed has claimed he was beaten so badly, detectives broke a titanium rod that was holding his fractured femur in place. He had to live with that injury for more than 25 years, taking pills to deal with the pain, until a federal lawsuit granted him surgery in 2016.
Judge Thomas Gainer overturned Reed’s conviction in December 2018 and granted him a new trial, but he later retired and Judge Thomas Hennelly took over the case.
In the February 2020 hearing, Hennelly vacated Gainer’s ruling overturning Reed’s conviction, ruled Reed would stay behind bars for life.
Reed has spent 29 years in prison.
His attorneys now say they will push to have his conviction vacated.