The family of the late J. Roderick MacArthur (1920-1984) founds the MacArthur Justice Center in Chicago, a public interest law firm to advocate for human rights and social justice through litigation.
David Bradford, founding attorney of the MacArthur Justice Center, commissions noted legal scholar Hans Zeisel, an authority on jury behavior, to study how mock jurors in Cook County interpreted Illinois pattern instructions for the death penalty. The empirical study, which showed jurors did not comprehend many of the instructions, helped fuel the debate about the fairness of the death penalty in Illinois and elsewhere.
Locke Bowman, a University of Chicago Law School graduate with considerable experience in civil and criminal litigation, is named Legal Director of the MacArthur Justice Center.
Affiliation with the University of Chicago gives the MacArthur Justice Center the ability to engage students in the center’s important human rights cases and give the students the opportunity to participate in those cases by assisting in research and trail preparation tasks.
U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Aspen orders Illinois to repentance James P. Free, Jr. Based on death penalty jury research conducted by Hans Zeisel, Aspen’s ruled Free should be resentenced because the capital jury instructions were so confusing that they permitted arbitrary and unguided imposition of the death sentence, a violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Although Aspen’s ruling was later reversed, it bolstered arguments against the death penalty and informed the public about the arbitrariness of its use.
MJC attorneys warned the Illinois legislature that the environment at Tamms Correctional Center has devastating effects on the prisoners who are housed there.
Chief Criminal Courts Judge Paul Biebel takes the extraordinary step of appointing a special prosecutor — former Illinois Appellate Court Justice Edward Egan — to investigate allegations that former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and police officers under his command employed torture techniques. The special prosecutor was appointed after the MacArthur Justice Center and others petitioned the court for a prosecutor on behalf of a coalition of community, police watchdog, and anti-death penalty organizations.
The Illinois Supreme Court unanimously turned away a challenge to the Death Row commutations granted by former Gov. George Ryan, saying that the state constitution "does not in any way restrict the governor's power to act." In connection with this clemency effort, the MacArthur Justice Center filed a clemency petition on behalf of 23 death row inmates who had refused to consent to the filing of clemency petitions on their own behalf.
MacArthur Justice Center Attorney Joseph Margulies, lead counsel for Shafiq Rasul, scores victory for human rights. In Rasul v. Bush, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Bush administration's policy of detaining foreign nationals without legal process at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station is illegal.
A special grand jury investigating conditions at Cook County Jail releases its findings: criminal misconduct most likely occurred on Sheriff Michael Sheahan's watch, jail employees did engage in physical abuse of prison inmates in 1999, and jail officials responsible for investigating allegations covered up evidence of the beatings. Locke Bowman, legal director for the MacArthur Justice Center said Sheriff Michael Sheahan must immediately offer the public an explanation for why and how jail beatings occurred on his watch and outline the steps he plans to take to end jail abuse.
Cook County Jail inmate Cello Pettiford awarded more than $360,000 from Cook County to settle a federal lawsuit charging Pettiford and other inmates were beaten by jail guards in 1999. The settlement follows a 2004 grand jury finding that a beating did occur and jail officials responsible for investigating the alleged beatings covered up the incident.
The MacArthur Justice Center becomes part of Northwestern University School of Law's Bluhm Legal Clinic.
After a four-and-a-half-year investigation, special prosecutors release finding that torture did occur under Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge in the 1970s and ‘80s. The MacArthur Justice Center was instrumental in getting the special prosecutor appointed and represents torture victims still in prison based on confessions that were extracted through torture.
Attorneys reached a $1 million settlement with the Chicago Police for Corethian Bell, a mentally disabled man who was coerced into confessing to the murder of his mother and spent 17 months in Cook County Jail for a crime he did not commit.
MacArthur Justice Center and other victims' rights groups release report on the failure of the special prosecutors to fairly and thoroughly investigate police torture under Jon Burge in Chicago.
MacArthur Justice Center, the Cook County Public Defender's Office and Citizens Alert call on Chicago's City Council to create an independent civilian-controlled agency to investigate police misconduct within the Chicago Police Department.
Federal judge today gives county officials 45 days to submit a proposal for alleviating the conditions, which violate a 25-year-old consent decree. MacArthur Justice Center represents jail inmates harmed by the overcrowding problem.
MacArthur Justice Center and other attorneys file a civil lawsuit on behalf of Matthew Livers, an innocent man who spent seven months in jail after Nebraska police wrongfully accused him of murdering two relatives, Wayne and Sharmon Stock.
U.S. Supreme Court rules in Munaf v. Geren that there was federal jurisdiction to review the prisoners' detention, but that the jurisdiction could be exercised only in the narrow circumstance where transfer of the prisoner to the Iraqi government would pose a grave risk the prisoners might be exposed to torture.
Facing a Roderick MacArthur Justice Center suit, Chief Judge of the Circuit Court Timothy Evans has ended Cook County's controversial televised bond hearings, installing a new system where hearings for all persons charged with felony offenses are now conducted in person.
After enduring more than 23 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Michael Tillman, a victim of torture linked to indicted former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge, was ordered released from an Illinois penitentiary.
MacArthur Justice Center wins sweeping victory for government accountability, an Illinois Appellate Court rules police departments cannot uniformly withhold records of a controversial procedure linked to more than 50 wrongful convictions across the stat
Amicus brief supports Stanley Wrice - who alleges he was beaten into confessing by John Byrne (Burge's "right hand man") and Peter Dignan (a member of Burge's "Midnight Crew”). Advocates argue Wrice and the other still-incarcerated men deserve prompt and complete hearings into their claims that their convictions rest on confessions procured by torture
Disgraced former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge convicted of perjury in connection with the torture he and and Chicago Police detectives working under his command systematically inflicted on African-American suspects during a 20-year period.
After 21 years in prison, including over a decade on Death Row, Victor Safforld, one of scores of African American men who have credibly claimed for years that they were tortured by convicted former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and his associates into fabricating confessions to crimes, is now a free man.
MacArthur Justice Center's Locke Bowman interviewed about police focus on Matthew Livers, now suing over the wrongful accusation of committing a double murder.
Wrice will be permitted to show that his alleged torture at the hands of John Byrne and Peter Dignan, two of Jon Burge's men, was part of the larger pattern of abuse of African American suspects by detectives working for Burge.
MacArthur Justice Center attorney Joseph Margulies, in concert with other lawyers, has asked the Polish government to investigate charges that Americans tortured Abu Zubaydah while he was detained in a secret prison in Poland.
This monumental advance occurred only after years of hard work, inside and outside of the courtroom, by a coalition of community leaders, grassroots advocates and lawyers, including the lawyers at the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center.
The Roderick MacArthur Justice Center authors amicus brief to the Illinois Supreme Court urging immediate hearings for Stanley Wrice and other still-imprisoned victims of torture by former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and his men.
The Roderick MacArthur Justice Center files a petition calling for a special prosecutor to investigate whether criminal charges should be brought in the 2004 homicide of David Koschman against Richard J. (R.J.) Vanecko, former Mayor Richard M. Daley's nephew. Locke Bowman: “We need a special prosecutor who has the power to convene a grand jury. The power to compel responses to subpoenas and the power to criminally charge those who may be criminally responsible for misconduct on April 25, 2004 and thereafter.”
A federal jury in Chicago awarded Thaddeus (T.J.) Jimenez $25 million in damages for the harm he suffered for his wrongful incarceration from 1993 until his exoneration in 2009. At 13, Jimenez was the youngest person ever arrested, transferred to criminal court, convicted, and then later exonerated.
Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Stanley Wrice, one of 15 men still in prison despite credible evidence that they were tortured into confessing by subordinates of convicted former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge, is entitled to a new evidentiary hearing to resolve his torture claim.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Michael Toomin disqualified State's Attorney Anita Alvarez and ruled that a special prosecutor would be appointed to investigate the death of David Koschman as a result of a blow struck by Richard J. Vanecko, nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley.
"Jacques Rivera has suffered a grave injustice at the hands of Chicago police who manipulated a young boy, falsified evidence and exhibited utter indifference to the truth," said Locke Bowman, one of Rivera's attorneys and director of the Roderick MacArthur Justice Center.
Twenty-six years after his 1986 arrest, the City of Chicago City approves the payment of a $5.375 million settlement to police torture victim Michael Tillman.
Attorneys from the Roderick MacArthur Justice Center file a class action lawsuit calling for new hearings for all of the men who remain in prison despite credible claims that their convictions were tainted by torture committed by disgraced former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and his subordinates.
The Illinois system for determining whether to revoke parole for children and teenagers is akin to a "kangaroo court" that violates the U.S. Constitution and wreaks havoc with the lives of thousands of youth, according to a class action lawsuit filed by the Roderick MacArthur Justice Center in federal district court.
The Roderick MacArthur Justice Center filed a lawsuit in November on behalf of Terrill Swift, one of four men who, as teenagers, were wrongfully convicted of murder and spent years in prison for a crime they didn't commit.
Center’s name changed to the Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center in honor of Dr. Solange MacArthur, who died in September 2012. Solange was the daughter of Roderick and Christiane MacArthur.
Special Prosecutor Dan Webb, appointed to investigate the case after RMJC successfully petitioned for an independent probe into Koschman’s death, indicted Richard J. Venecko for involuntary manslaughter.
Ronald Kitchen was arrested on a false tip, deprived of food and sleep and repeatedly tortured by Chicago police who beat him with their fists, a nightstick and a telephone, inflicting serious injury to his genitals.
Locke Bowman, Director of the MacArthur Justice Center, responds: "The abusive police actions were made possible by high ranking City and County officials, who helped keep the torture secret, thwarted attempts to discipline police officers, and refused to act on calls for investigations and prosecutions of Burge and others responsible for the systemic pattern of torture."
People released from state prisons routinely have their constitutional rights violated and are re-imprisoned for alleged parole violations without a fair hearing, access to legal counsel or the ability to cross-examine witnesses and review evidence presented at "sham" hearings, according to a class action lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court against the directors of the Illinois Prisoner Review Board and the Illinois Department of Corrections and Governor Pat Quinn.
“By any measure, the conduct of all of the defendants was morally and legally reprehensible,” said Locke Bowman, Executive Director of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center.
First office outside of Chicago opens in New Orleans under leadership of Co-Directors James W. Craig, a veteran capital defense lawyer, and Katie M. Schwartzmann, former Managing Director of the Louisiana office of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
A recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber will allow Juan Rivera, Jr., to move forward with a lawsuit seeking to hold Lake County prosecutors and law enforcement officers liable for damages Rivera suffered as the result of a 20-year wrongful imprisonment.
Federal judge transfers lead litigation responsibility in Jones v. Gusman, the federal lawsuit alleging pervasive violations of prisoners’ constitutional rights in the Orleans Parish Prison.
Some 2,000 men in Cook County Jail’s highest security units live under a constant risk of life threatening violence, and Cook County elected leaders and jail administrators have failed to take reasonable measures to protect the men awaiting trial, according to a civil rights class action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.
Although Webb’s report said his team found no evidence of direct contact between police investigators and Daley, there is no doubt that political clout played a role in the initial investigation, which did not lead to any charges against Vanecko, said Locke Bowman, Executive Director of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center.
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