The federal perjury trial for former police commander Jon Burge, who was accused of overseeing the torture of dozens of suspects, begins today when potential jurists are interviewed.
Burge, 62, won’t be tried for torture because the statute of limitations expired, but he will be tried for lying under oath about his involvement.
The detective was charged in 2008 connection with his previous testimony that neither he nor homicide detectives under his command tortured any murder suspects 20-some years ago, the U.S. Attorney's office announced.
A federal indictment alleges that Burge lied in a deposition claiming he hadn't participated in the "bagging" of a suspect -- covering his head with a typewriter cover until he couldn't breathe -- in January 1987.
Burge, fired by the Police Department in the early 1990s, has long been the focus of allegations by civil rights attorneys that he and his detectives used beatings, electric shocks and death threats against homicide suspects to obtain confessions decades ago.
