As BackTalk reported on June 4, the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission has begun filing cases with the courts in which confessions may have been tortured out of defendants.

Unfortunately, the work on the first of these cases is being completed just as the commission is going out of business June 30 because of last-minute budget cuts in Springfield. That means many other cases may simply never be reviewed.

Earlier this month the commission said it found five cases in which complaints had credibility. On Wednesday, the commission filed three of those cases cases with Cook County Circuit Court Chief Judge Timothy Evans after finding credibility in claims by convicted defendants that they were tortured into confessing. The commission recommended these cases be reviewed by a judge.