Aldermen Mull $4 Million For Man Who Claims Detective Tortured Him

chicago city council chambers
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks during a special City Council meeting in 2015. Paul Beaty / AP Photo
chicago city council chambers
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks during a special City Council meeting in 2015. Paul Beaty / AP Photo

Aldermen Mull $4 Million For Man Who Claims Detective Tortured Him

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Chicago aldermen next week are planning to consider a $4 million city settlement with a man who claims a detective tortured him into confessing to a 1990 murder.

Shawn Whirl spent 24 years in prison after his conviction in the fatal shooting of a taxi driver in the South Side’s Pullman neighborhood.

Whirl said a detective who had worked under Cmdr. Jon Burge repeatedly slapped his face and dug a key into an existing wound on his leg, over and over, until he confessed.

An appellate court threw out the conviction in 2015.

The settlement, reached by the city’s Law Department, appears on Tuesday’s agenda of the City Council’s Finance Committee.

Shawn Whirl v. City of Chicago by Chicago Public Media on Scribd