In a ruling that stunned spectators in a packed courtroom Friday, a Cook County judge on Friday overturned an order granting Gerald Reed a new trial for a 1990 double-murder.
The ruling by Judge Thomas Hennelly, reversing a 2018 order by his predecessor, came after months of suspense for Reed’s supporters and attorneys, who had been seeking to have the case against the 56-year-old dismissed.
Hennelly took over the case from Judge Thomas Gainer, who retired just a few days after ordering a new trial for Reed based on allegations that Reed was tortured by detectives into confessing to the killings of Pamela Powers and Willie Williams. In the ensuing months, Hennelly’s remarks about the case had seemed more skeptical about Reed’s claims of being beaten so badly that a titanium rod in his leg was dislodged, and about the meaning of Gainer’s order.
Friday, Hennelly cited a ruling last month by Judge William Hooks upholding the conviction of George Anderson, a case that was also tainted by the involvement of detectives who worked with Burge. Hooks said Anderson had lied about being beaten into confessing to two murders, hoping to “ghost ride” on similar allegations against Burge and his men and get a new trial.
“Your ride on the Jon Burge torture bus is over,” Hennelly said, according to a courtroom observer who took notes on the proceedings.
Reed’s supporters — a throng of several dozen relatives and activists who have packed the gallery for monthly hearings in the case for years — chanted “Free Gerald Reed” as they walked through the courthouse lobby. Reed’s mother, Armanda Shackleford, wept as she spoke to reporters.
“I never would have thought that this judge would do what he did today,” she said.
Reed had long claimed he was beaten by Chicago police detectives under the command of disgraced Cmdr. Jon Burge. The beating dislodged a titanium rod that had been implanted in his leg, an injury that he reported to medical staff at the Cook County Jail immediately after his arrest. But medical records documenting his claims had gone missing before a 1992 hearing on whether to suppress his confession and were not located for some 20 years.
Gainer, in granting Reed the new trial, ruled that if those records had been presented back then they might have been enough to sway the judge overseeing Reed’s original trial to suppress Reed’s confession. But Hennelly at a hearing in October questioned whether Gainer’s ruling barred both a written statement Reed made and his oral confession to Detective Michael Kill.
Reed’s lawyers insisted that Gainer wouldn’t have overturned the conviction if he believed any statement Reed made after being beaten was fair game for prosecutors.
Special Prosecutor Robert Milan had said even without Reed’s confessions, there was ample evidence that Reed committed the murders, including witnesses who said Reed had bragged about killing Powers and Williams and ballistics evidence linking him to the murder weapon.
“There is extensive evidence supporting Mr. Reed’s guilt regarding these crimes. Too often in our criminal justice system, the victims and their families are overlooked,” Milan said in a statement issued Friday. “We hope that today’s ruling provides some relief to the families of Pamela Powers and Willie Williams.”
