Kevin Jackson, Survivor of Wrongful Conviction at the Hands of CPD’s Brian P. Forberg, Finally Released
After being wrongfully incarcerated at the hands of CPD Sergeant Brian P. Forberg, 23 years later, Kevin Jackson is finally home free! On the afternoon of Tuesday, October 8, Jackson exited Western Illinois Correctional Center welcomed by his loving family, friends, and supporters who had fought long and hard to get him free. This is a huge victory for the Black community and its decades-long movement against police torture and wrongful convictions in Chicago, which has freed hundreds of Black and brown people in the last few years, in a direct challenge to the white supremacist agenda of the Cook County legal system. The movement won’t stop fighting until all our people are free!
“Kevin’s release is a huge victory, and it has reassured us that when we fight, we win,” said Jasmine Smith, co-chair of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, speaking of the movement against wrongful convictions. “Kevin isn’t the first, nor will he be the last person the movement frees. Our fight won’t stop till all our people are free and all those who hold up this racist system are held accountable for their crimes.”
Jackson is one of nearly two dozen men and women wrongfully incarcerated by recently retired Sergeant CPD Brian P. Forberg, who was one of the highest paid officers in Chicago during his tenure. In 2003, Forberg, who developed a reputation as a “closer,” convicted Jackson of a shooting in which the victim himself said that Jackson wasn’t the shooter. In that case, there was no physical evidence, and all four witnesses recanted at trial, sharing nearly identical stories of being coerced by Forberg. Despite that, Jackson was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Years later, in response to revelations that Forberg was married to Assistant State’s Attorney Kirsten Ann Olsen at the time that she passed over Jackson’s post-conviction petition, a special prosecutor was assigned to investigate Jackson’s case. The results of the special investigation prompted the States Attorney’s Office to cease its prosecution of Jackson. Yet in July 2024, Judge Angela M. Petrone, a former Assistant State’s Attorney herself, denied Jackson’s unopposed Motion to Vacate, in a desperate attack on Jackson and the movement against the wrongful convictions upon which she has built her career. Within 24 hours of hearing oral arguments on Petrone’s decision, an appellate court ordered Petrone to release Jackson.
This afternoon, Jackson was greeted outside of Western Correctional by family and supporters who’d been driving from Chicago since 6am to meet him. His victory is a major blow to the racist system of injustice and sets a crucial precedent in the struggle for freedom of all Forberg survivors and all wrongfully convicted in general. The clear pattern of coercion and misconduct established in this case is already being strengthen in the case of Rico Clark, another survivor of Forberg, whose lawyers filed a motion to vacate today, invoking Kevin Jackson’s release and citing nearly identical patterns of coercion, abuse and misconduct by Forberg and his partner Kevin Eberle in their conviction of Clark. All eyes are now on States Attorney Kim Foxx as the movement pushes her for a mass exoneration of Forberg survivors before she leaves office in December.
The Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Torture (CFIST) is a campaign of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. CFIST demands:
That the Office of the State’s Attorney immediately move to vacate convictions for all those framed, tortured and wrongfully convicted, particularly cases involving detectives where an established pattern of torture, forced confession and wrongful convictions holds.
That Governor Pritzker pardon all survivors of police torture and wrongful conviction, beginning with those whose cases have been deemed credible cases of torture by the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission (TIRC).