By Stefano Esposito
Chicago Sun Times
A convicted killer who is seeking a new trial testified Monday that detectives working under former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge slapped, punched and scared him into confessing to a murder he didn’t commit.
“Even today, I’m still afraid these officers may do something to my family or have something done to me while I’m in jail,” Cortez Brown, 38, told Cook County Judge Clayton Crane.
Brown, a former Gangster Disciple, contends he had nothing to do with the 1990 gang-related slayings of Delvin Botler and Curtis Sims. Prosecutors say Brown had ample opportunity to report the abuse soon after he was arrested, but never did.
On Monday, on the first day of Brown’s hearing, two officers who Brown says tortured him into confessing refused to testify, citing the Fifth Amendment.
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