Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel apologized on behalf of the city after City Councilors approved a US$12.3 million settlement to be split by two men who were tortured by a former police commander into confessing to murders they did not commit.

“This is a dark chapter on the history of the city of Chicago,” Emanuel told reporters of the period under former mayors, calling it “a stain on the city's reputation.”

“I am sorry this happened,” said Emanuel, who heads America's third-largest city. “Now let us now all move on.”

That probably won’t happen.  Ronald Kitchen and Marvin Reeves both spent 21 years in prison for the 1988 murders of two women and three young children.  They were released and exonerated in 2009.  But they are just two victims of Chicago Police torture.  Lawyers for the men say 120 men were forced to sign fake confessions by Police Commander Jon Burge and other detectives during a period between 1973 and 1991.

Many of these men have been freed from prison, sometimes from death row (that’s right, they were almost killed by the state because of fake confessions).  Many have been paid multi-million dollar settlements.  After years of botched prosecutions, Burge was finally sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison in January 2011.