BGA investigates allegation former Chicago Police Supt. Philip Cline lied in murder trial

The Higher Authorities Affiliation and Chicago Tribune are investigating the declare as Smith’s attorneys are looking for damages in his wrongful conviction.

Legal professionals for the ailing 73-year-old man freed after 33 years in jail for a double homicide mentioned they will show Philip Cline, who was a Chicago police lieutenant on the time, lied below oath in a case tainted by a infamous squad of Chicago officers identified for torturing suspects, based on the BGA.

Reached by cellphone, Cline declined to debate the allegations with the BGA, however famous the grisly nature of the underlying crime.

“If he will get a dime, it is a miscarriage of justice,” Cline tells the BGA, who’s now govt director of the Chicago Police Memorial Basis, which honors slain officers and helps their households.

Smith was convicted at trial in 1990 and handed a life sentence. In 2013, the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Aid Fee, fashioned to analyze allegations in opposition to Burge and his detectives, discovered Smith’s claims of abuse credible and the case “wholly circumstantial and really weak” with out the confession.

In 2020, prosecutors requested a decide to toss out the conviction and Smith went free. A Cook dinner County decide granted him a certificates declaring his innocence.

Learn the total BGA article right here.