Sign the Petition: Attorney General Kwame Raoul, Free Gerald Reed!
****UPDATE*******
Join our rally outside the courthouse on Friday, January 10th, 2020 at 8:00AM for Gerald Reed. After that we will go to Room 604 to hear Judge Thomas Hennelly's decision. He asked the prosecution and defense to provide their case for why his signed, false confession should or should not be used -- a confession that was thrown out by the last judge, a confession coerced by torture!
****UPDATE*******
Gerald Reed has been in prison for 28 years for a crime he did not commit. He is the victim of a violent crime perpetrated by Commander Jon Burge and his minions. On June 14, 2012, and again on March 14, 2014, the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission unanimously found that there was “a preponderance of evidence” that Reed was tortured. His case was assigned to Judge Thomas V. Gainer and after seven years of delays by Special Prosecutors assigned to the case, Judge Gainer, on Dec. 19, 2018, vacated Reed’s conviction because it relied on a tortured confession.
Now another motion to remove the Special Prosecutors has been assigned to Criminal Court Chief Judge Leroy Martin, causing further delay. Should a new prosecutor be assigned still further delays are inevitable while they review the case.
Meanwhile, Gerald Reed’s torture continues every day. His leg --- broken by his torturers working under Jon Burge 28 years ago – was partially repaired only in 2017, leaving Reed in continuing pain. In addition, on December 22, 2018, he suffered a heart attack. Last month, April, he was in a coma for two days caused by influenza. His ongoing torture and imprisonment are killing him.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul has the authority to end this extreme injustice and #FreeGeraldReed.
Gerald Reed needs to be free and his life needs to be saved. We call on Attorney General Raoul to drop the charges against Gerald Reed. We urge him to use the authority of his office to end this human tragedy and set an innocent man free.