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Justice for Cortez Brown: Tortured, Innocent, and Wrongfully Convicted

In 1990, at the age of 19, Victor Safforld (Cortez Brown) was arrested for a traffic violation in Park Forest, IL. After sleeping on the floor of a cell without food overnight, Victor was taken to Area 1 Chicago Police Department for questioning in two murder cases. Victor immediately told them he wanted to make a phone call and wanted a lawyer present during questioning. He phoned his mother and told her he was at Area 1 and she arranged for a lawyer to go to Area 1. Before his mother or lawyer could make it to Area 1, Victor was taken to Area 3 police department. He did not have a lawyer present during questioning and it subsequently took his mother two days to find him.

Torture

At Area 3 police headquarters, Victor's nightmare began. He was beaten by detectives John Palladino, Anthony Maslanka, and John O'Brien -- all who worked with the notorious Jon Burge. Burge and his detectives sent several men to death row based on coerced confessions, now known as “The Death Row 10.” These same detectives were involved in the Marcus Wiggens case -- a 13-year old boy who was beaten into confessing for a crime he did not commit and was later exonerated. The detectives beat and threatened Victor and his family. Victor feared for his two younger teen-age brothers – in fact, police went to his mother's house and threatened to beat them if they didn't tell them where Victor was. To make the abuse stop, Victor signed a false statement with a false name, Cortez Brown. Victor hoped that by signing a false name, he could explain to the courts that the statement was false.

Unfair Trial

Victor was convicted of two felony murders and sentenced to death. Not only was Victor beaten into a false confession, which was used to convict him, but also there are other problems with his case. There are no eyewitnesses who claim to have seen Victor shoot the victim in either case. In the first case, a witness claimed to have seen Victor a block away from the shooting. The witness stated he called his brother at his mother’s house and his brother told him he saw someone lying dead in the backyard. However, the brother told police he was at work when the shooting occurred and never spoke to his brother. In addition, this witness had cases pending in front of the judge who tried Victor and was released from jail after testifying against Victor.

Likewise, in the second case there are no eyewitnesses who claim to have seen Victor kill the victim. At Victor’s trial, a man who was present when the victim was murdered could not identify Victor as one of the shooters. Two beat officers testified that they were in the area of the shooting, heard the shots and called in the incident over their radio. In Victor’s trial, they testified that they saw Victor jump into a get away car with a large assault riffle. They pursued the assailants, but lost them after several blocks. Victor’s codefendant in this case plea bargained for 30 years. At this plea hearing, the State’s Attorneys testified that these same two beat officers reported to the State’s Attorney’s office that it was the codefendant (not Victor) that they saw jump into the vehicle. Amazingly, not only do these stories of the same incident conflict, but neither of the officers followed procedures by filing an official police report the night of the crime nor has the State’s Attorney’s office produced this descriptive report to the defense in Victor’s case.

Arbitrary "Justice"

Victor’s case is an example of what is wrong with the death penalty. It’s arbitrary: If the two cases had been tried in reverse order, Victor would have never been eligible for the death penalty! The death penalty sends innocent people to prison: Victor should never have been behind bars for this crime. The death penalty is racist: Two thirds of Illinois’ death row (before the commutations) was Black and Latino. All of Jon Burge’s torture victims were Black and all the detectives involved were white. In October 2002, Victor’s death sentence was vacated. In January 2003, Illinois Governor Ryan commuted all death sentences to life without the possibility of parole. Yet, the struggle to free this innocent man continues. To find out what you can do to help Victor and other members of the Death Row 10 who remain in prison, call the Campaign to End the Death Penalty at 773-955-4841.