P.E. brings you real insight from the inside with noted prisoner/activist Stanley “S-Man” Howard who is currently incarcerated in the Illinois Department of Corrections in Dixon, Illinois. He talks with P.E. about his book “Tortured By Blue’” his life on death row and the fight to expose the Chicago Police torture scandal.
TORTURED BY BLUE: The Chicago Police Torture Story
Written by: Chicago Torture Victims (Marvin Reeves, Mark Clements, Ronald Kitchen, in collaboration with Stanley Howard)
Published by: Balboa Press
Coming Soon to Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and other outlets
Who is Stanley Howard?
At the age of 21, S-Man was arrested in 1984, taken to Area 2 police station and tortured into confessing to a murder he did not commit. He was tortured by officers working under the command of the infamous, and now fired, Jon Burge. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1987. In 1988, while on death row in Pontiac Correctional Center, S-Man started The Death Row 10 – the prisoners who were tortured by Burge and his men into allegedly confessing and sent to death row.
S-Man has been a dedicated soldier in exposing the corruption and flaws plaguing the criminal justice system and in the fight to abolish the death penalty. His fight against the death penalty led to him having his own column (Keeping it Real) in the Campaign to End the Death Penalty newsletter in The New Abolitionist. Amazingly, S-Man did all of this and much more while on Illinois’ death row.
Despite being pardoned on the “Basis of Innocence” by Governor George Ryan in 2003 for his murder conviction, he is still incarcerated for another bogus conviction. S-Man is known throughout the IDOC as a strong voice for prisoner’s rights and is an inspiration to both young and older prisoners. He fights to reveal the truth about his torture ordeal and to reform the criminal justice system.
P.E.: Can you describe to our readers the tortuous ordeal you suffered at the hands of Chicago police officers?
S-Man: I was slapped, beaten and kicked for hours while handcuffed to a ring on the wall with my hands cuffed behind my back. My torturers also suffocated me with a plastic bag and later with a plastic typewriter cover until I blacked out. They were trying to get me to confess to a murder I knew nothing about.
P.E.: Were you surprised by the torture? Did you have any inkling that this was going to happen?
S-Man: No, I never expected the officers to physically beat me in such a cold manner. I was so scared and I thought they were going to kill me. Being suffocated by those three white cops showed me what lynching victims must have felt like at the moment they knew they were going to die.
P.E.: I’ve read that Burge and his torture crew tortured over 160 Black men into allegedly confessing. Some of the torture methods included suspects being electrically shocked on their genitals with a device in a “black box” and with a cattle prod; Russian roulette; putting guns in suspects mouths and to their heads with the threat of death; suffocation with plastic – known as bagging; and severe beatings.
S-Man: This small group of racist cops had no problems torturing black men into “confessing.” It was encouraged and covered up by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
P.E.: What did it feel like when you were sentenced to death?
S-Man: I had already received 78 years from the same corrupt, biased judge, so when he sentenced me to death, the headline in the Chicago Tribune read, “Sentenced to Death, Man Laughs.” I couldn’t stop laughing. I don’t know why I was laughing, but I believe it was an absurd reaction to an absurd outcome. I was an innocent man being sentenced to death!
P.E.: Wow! I can truly understand how you must have felt. Tell me, what was it like going on death row?
S-Man: I left the Cook County jail on a transfer bus with about 160 other prisoners – I was the only one condemned to die. Once we arrived at the Joliet Receiving Center, things changed. It was at that moment the system started treating me differently than the other prisoners. As soon as we got off the two buses, they immediately started calling my name and rushed me through the IDOC intake process. It took less than an hour before I was led outside and placed inside a IDOC car. We were escorted by an Illinois State Trooper and two other IDOC cars with lights and sirens blaring as we sped, non stop, through the streets and down the interstate straight to Pontiac C.C. They drove directly onto the prison grounds and stopped in front of a big red building.
I’ll never forget it. We walked inside the building and they immediately locked all the gates and doors leading to the stairs and other parts of the building. Then we walked about 10 steps over to a door with a sign over it that said “Condemn Unit.” An officer flipped on a light switch and a bright red light started flashing off and on. It gave me a horrible impression that danger was on the other side of the door – and that is where they were taking me. When the “all is clear” sign was given to the officers on the other side, the door opened and we stepped inside. After me and my escorting officers were searched, they led me down a long gallery of cells with bars while I was still hog-tied with handcuffs and shackled and the other death row prisoners were staring at me as we walked past their cells. They took me to the end of the gallery and put me inside a cell with a steel door which I could not see out of.
I have to admit, I was a 23 year old kid and scared half to death, and the fight for my life was put in total perspective when they closed that steel door behind me. I was on death row.
P.E.: That’s incredible. It make me think about when I first went to Pontiac, known as the Thunder Dome. I was a little intimidated and I was also 23, but S-Man, it wasn’t no where near that intense. So what was it like starting life on death row?
S-Man: The older guys on The Row started asking me if I needed anything. Without knowing me they began sending me things like soap, bowls, a cup, books and food, you know, things you would need to start bidding because I didn’t have anything. They welcomed me into the family like a little brother and it really made me feel at ease.
P.E.: Why did you describe it like a little brother?
S-Man: There were about 30 guys on The Row at that time and I was one of the youngest so that is how they treated me. Being on The Row and facing death was a tough situation for anyone to be in, and we leaned on each other for support and understanding. It was like a family.
P.E.: What do you remember most about facing death on death row?
S-Man: Being locked in the cell 23/24 hours a day, every day, year after year, for 16 years. It was very traumatic, especially right before and after an execution. I lived through six of them, and the experience had me wondering about my own possible execution. Facing death teaches you how to appreciate family and the small things in life.
P.E.: How did you start The Death Row 10?
S-Man: The idea sprang up from the law class I started…
P.E.: Wait! Hold up S-Man. What do you mean you started a law class on The Row?
S-Man: After getting my GED, I started studying everything I could about criminal law, I had a lot of help from other guys on The Row. I fell in love with studying it and that is how I spent my time inside the cell. I wanted to share my knowledge with other guys on The Row who knew nothing about the law, so I wrote Assistant Warden Lowery asking if we could have an extra period in the recreational area to hold a law class. I promised it wouldn’t be for working out or playing cards so he gave us his permission.
P.E.: S-Man, that’s a book within itself, “How I Got Old Man Lowery to Let Us Have a Law Class on Death Row.” I know Warden Lowery and that was really outstanding. Yea, you must have caught Lowery on his best day!
S-Man: Yeah, it even surprised me. We had it twice a week, a beginner’s course and a day in which everybody came to learn and discuss any and everything that came up. It was pretty good because we all learned a lot in the law class.
P.E.: So, let’s get back on track. It was during this law class that the Death Row 10 came about?
S-Man: There was a group of us on The Row that were claiming to had been tortured by Burge and his men. We were losing our battles individually in the courts. I wanted to take our fight for justice to the public.
P.E.: How do you take a courtroom battle to the public?
S-Man: We organized our families, friends and supporters, and asked them to start pressuring The-Powers-That-Be to acknowledge our claims of torture. I was positive that the truth would prevail.
P.E.: What was the first action taken as an organized group?
S-Man: We staged a protest in front of Police Headquarters on September 12, 1998, that was sponsored by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP). It was a really nice turn out. That protest started the ball rolling for us.
P.E.: I read the book and I’m amazed at how y’all were able to accomplish all of this from death row. Y’all made what seemed impossible, possible (closing down death row and taking down Jon Burge).
S-Man: The Death Row 10 changed how the fight was being fought.
P.E.: What was the first accomplishment for The Death Row 10?
S-Man: For me, it was in 1999 when I saw Mayor Richard Daley and State’s Attorney Richard “Dick” Devine being forced to answer questions about the torture scandal and The Death Row 10.
P.E.: What did that pressure amount to?
S-Man: Members of The Death Row 10, including myself, began winning court hearings because we had awaken the public and the courts could no longer ignore and deny our claims. Our fight focused the spotlight on the racist, broken and unjust criminal justice system and its system of death. The book is going to shock and change a lot of people’s thinking and views about the system.
P.E.: I was sitting in a cell in Stateville watching what you guys on death row were able to accomplish. In your opinion, what was the blow that got Governor Ryan to place a moratorium on the death penalty?
S-Man: I talked about this in the book. They were getting hit from many different angles: The Death Row 10 and the CEDP were constantly holding rallies, protests and demonstrations which kept the issue in the news; and, the State’s Attorney’s Office was being assailed by the public in the media and the courts for its role in the scandal. We kept the death penalty under the spotlight, and when Anthony Porter was released from death row, the pressure was on for the government to do something. Porter came within hours of being executed for a crime he did not commit. We had 12 guys executed, but 13 men walked off death row for crimes they did not commit. All of this caused Governor Ryan to issue a moratorium in January 2000.
P.E.: The moratorium was a big victory, but your group didn’t let up. Y’all also took down the torture scandal ring leader, Jon Burge, who was prosecuted and sent to prison. This part of the battle is the major part of the book. Can you give me some insight into that struggle?
S-Man: Our families, lawyers and supporters had been fighting for an investigation into the claims of torture for over 20 years. The federal, state and county governments didn’t want to get involved. No one wanted to investigate and end up admitting that a group of white, racist cops had tortured scores of black men, sending them to prison and death row. The entire system worked to cover it up.
We finally got a judge to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate, but he refused to issue any indictments. The public was so angry by his attempted cover up and the whitewashed report he issued that the U.S. Attorney stepped in and charged Burge with perjury and obstruction of justice.
Our book, “Torture By Blue” walks the reader from the police station known as “The House of Screams” through the crooked and biased courtrooms to death row. It shows how the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Police Department, and the highest level of city and county governments worked with the torturers and fought to cover it up.
This is a Great American Tragedy that most people don’t even know about, and I’m hoping that our book will change that.
P.E.: S-Man, this is an important book. People need to know what really went down, and they need to hear it from the men who endured it. What gave y’all the courage and motivation to write it?
S-Man: The Chicago City Council passed an ordinance giving Burge torture victims reparations. It was the first ever reparation given to Blacks in America for any reason. Besides giving torture victims up to 100,000 each and free tuition to city colleges. The package also included teaching 8th and 10th graders a curriculum on the torture scandal. We know the so called scholars would write the text books for the city, but we wanted the narrative to be told from our point of view. After talking with my co-authors about this, that’s when we decided to write Tortured by Blue.
P.E.: Any final comments you want to make S-Man?
S-Man: I thank you for this opportunity and I really appreciate the work P.E. is doing to educate the public on criminal justice and prison issues. Everyone should go out and get a copy of “Tortured By Blue.” I’m guaranteeing they will not be disappointed. Thank you.
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