This weekend the Clear Channel Urban Network reflects on the conductor of Soul Train. 

Source: V103

A man who claimed he was tortured by officers working for former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge into giving a false confession to a 1982 rape will get another chance to prove his innocence after nearly 30 years behind bars.

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Stanley Wrice, who was sentenced to 100 years in prison in connection with the 1982 gang rape, should get a new hearing because the use of physical coercion to extract a confession “is an egregious violation” of the justice system and “is never harmless error.”

The state’s high court cited U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have found the use of a coerced confession “aborts the basic trial process and renders a trial fundamentally unfair.”

The court ruled that Wrice should be appointed legal counsel and allowed his post-conviction case to proceed, over prosecutors’ objections.

Justice Mary Jane Theis wrote the majority opinion with all concurring except Justice Robert Thomas, who did not take part in the decision.

Prosecutors had argued that even if Wrice was physically coerced into confession, it was a harmless error because there was enough evidence to convict him even without the confession.

Burge was never charged with torture, and a special prosecutor who was appointed years later to investigate torture claims found that the statute of limitations had passed for filing any charges.

But Burge was convicted in federal court in 2010 of lying under oath in a civil case about the torture tactics he and his subordinates were accused of using during the 1970s and 1980s. He began serving a 4 1/2-year prison sentence in January 2011.

Witnesses initially put Wrice at the scene of the gang rape in which a hot clothing iron had been used to burn 70 percent of the victim’s body. But the lone remaining eyewitness and Wrice’s two codefendants recanted their testimony, saying they were also beaten and threatened by Burge and his officers.

Special prosecutor Myles O’Rourke argued before the Supreme Court in November that, although there was no DNA evidence to implicate Wrice, the physical evidence and witness accounts had been enough for an appellate court jury to have upheld his conviction.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

Former Bears wide receiver Sam Hurd is scheduled to go on trial April 2 on charges that he tried to create a drug-distribution network, according to a federal judge’s order.

Hurd, 26, is accused of trying to buy large quantities of marijuana and cocaine, including an alleged buy of one kilogram of cocaine. He was arrested outside of a steakhouse on Dec. 14 and cut shortly afterward by the Bears.

Hurd has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Michael McCrum of San Antonio, did not return a message seeking comment.

U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis, in an order Wednesday, set a pretrial conference for March 21 before an April trial in Dallas federal court. The trial could be delayed as Hurd, alleged co-conspirator Toby Lujan and federal prosecutors file motions.

Hurd is a San Antonio native who played for the Bears and the Dallas Cowboys.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

First dates are often highly sexual, the second annual Singles in America survey found, with 55 percent of singles reporting having had sex on the first date (66 percent of men; 44 percent of women).

First-date sex is not just about one-night stands or hookups, says sex therapist Laura Berman of Chicago, noting that many people meet online and feel they know each other well by the “first date.” And on social media, there’s already flirting and sexual tension.

“It’s almost as if by the time they’ve had the first physical date, it might have been the equivalent of three dates. I think this online sharing has definitely escalated some of this familiarity and quickness in which people get into sexual scenarios,” she says.

The survey found that 21 percent of singles met the last person they dated online, the most often cited way of meeting.

Stanford researcher Michael Rosenfeld says data may be deceiving for online daters, who may meet a few new people every week and have “a lot of first dates. It could be a small portion of all first dates that end up in sex.”

Almost a quarter said they typically have sex after one, two or three dates; 25 percent said “when the other person is ready,” and 19 percent said “when we agree to an exclusive relationship.” About 13 percent said “when we are married.”

Among other sex-related findings:

◆ 58 percent of singles have had a one-night stand (65 percent of men and 51 percent of women).

◆ 44 percent had not experienced infidelity; of those who had, 36 percent said a partner had been unfaithful, 8 percent had personally been unfaithful, and 13 percent said both were.

◆ 60 percent said a partner having a series of one-night stands was “more unacceptable” than a three-month affair with one person; 40 percent said a three-month affair was worse.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times

Publisher John H. Johnson, who created Ebony and Jet magazines, will be honored on this year's Black Heritage stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service.

A Tuesday ceremony is planned in Johnson's hometown of Arkansas City, where he lived until moving to Chicago with his family at age 15.

Johnson founded Johnson Publishing Co. on a $500 loan using his mother's furniture as collateral. At the time, he was working as a clerk at a black-owned life insurance company.

He created Ebony in 1945 with a press run of 25,000 copies. Its circulation topped 1.6 million at the time of Johnson's death in 2005 at the age of 87. Johnson also founded the newsweekly Jet in 1951.

"His magazines portrayed black people positively at a time when such representation was rare, and he played an important role in the civil rights movement," Stephen Kearney, manager of USPS' Stamp Services, said when announcing the stamp last year.

The magazines became two of the longest-running black-oriented magazines in the country.

The Black Heritage stamp, featuring a color photo of Johnson taken by photographer David McCann, goes on sale Tuesday and is being issued as a Forever stamp.

Past honorees include Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, singer Ella Fitzgerald, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, poet Langston Hughes and baseball player Jackie Robinson.

Source: NBC.com