Law Professor Dan Coyne Named Independent Reviewer of Burge Torture Claims
On May 6, the Chicago City Council, after years of pressure by community organizations, passed the Budget Reparations Ordinance, a $5.5 million fund to make financial amends to black Chicagoans systematically tortured by former Chicago Police Commander John Burge and his officers between 1972 and 1991.
On June 21, the City of Chicago and the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials organization selected Dan Coyne, Clinical Professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, as the independent third party to investigate reparations claims to determine legitimacy. Dan Coyne is a well-respected clinical professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of a law, a practicing defense attorney for 31 years, and has served on the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission.
Dan Coyne is a president emeritus of the Chicago Council of Lawyers – a bar association dedicated to systemic reform of the courts. He has been featured in Chicago Magazine in 2002, has been voted Faculty Member of the Year in 2009 by the Chicago-Kent Student Bar Association, and has been selected by the U.S. State Department to help in an initiative to restructure the court system of Mexico.
We congratulate Dan Coyne on this critically important posting, and commend all those involved in the reparations effort here in Chicago.
To read an interview with Dan Coyne on this posting and the role of reparations in Chicago, click here to a view a recent Sun-Times article.