A Cook County judge will allow a Mauritanian-born writer and terrorism suspect to testify at a hearing that will determine whether a Chicago man imprisoned more than three decades for an infamous North Side murder will get a new trial.
Circuit Court Judge Adrienne E. Davis ruled at a brief hearing Thursday she would let Mohamedou Ould Slahi testify about his “enhanced interrogation” at the U.S. detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, starting in 2003.
The abuse was allegedly overseen by Richard Zuley, at the time a U.S. Naval reservist on leave from his CPD detective job. Years earlier, Zuley allegedly tortured a confession out of Anthony Garrett that led to his conviction for 7-year-old Dantrell Davis’ 1992 fatal shooting in the Cabrini-Green public housing complex.
“I’m grateful that Mr. Slahi is going to testify on behalf of my brother and all the other people that have been through the same thing with this man, Richard Zuley,” Garrett’s sister Twania Garrett Waddell said. “I think we’ll learn that [Zuley] is a liar. He terrorized people and beat them into confessions under his order.”
Garrett’s proceedings stem from a 2023 referral by the Illinois Torture and Relief Commission that detailed an “overwhelming” history of “lengthy and consistent” complaints alleging psychological and physical torture involving Zuley, who was hired by CPD in 1970 and worked more than three decades for the department.
Zuley, a detective commander and unidentified cops interrogated Garrett for nearly two days. Garrett eventually signed a handwritten statement admitting to Dantrell’s murder.
In 1994, a jury convicted Garrett. A judge sentenced him to 100 years in prison. Garrett, now 66, is not scheduled for release until 2040, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
The evidentiary hearing for Garrett is expected this fall.
Davis said she would allow Slahi, who lives in Amsterdam, to testify via Zoom. Blagg said he is not allowed in the United States.
Assistant State’s Attorney William Meyer declined to comment on Thursday’s ruling.
In hearings this spring, Meyer argued that Slahi’s experience was irrelevant to Garrett’s case because Zuley was working at Gitmo “in a time of war” and because Slahi had been “accused of aiding and abetting our enemies.”
Meyer also pointed out that Slahi’s abuse took place more than 10 years after Garrett’s murder confession and that Garrett, unlike Slahi, seemed to have suffered no physical injuries.
To win Garrett a new trial, his attorney Jennifer Blagg is trying to show a “pattern and practice” of Zuley coercing confessions. In court filings, Blagg has listed a string of Chicago murder cases between 1987 and 2003, when Slahi’s interrogation took place, in which a suspect alleged coercion involving Zuley.
Judges in recent years have vacated at least four murder convictions involving Zuley. The exonerees include Lathierial Boyd, Lee Harris, Carl Reed and David Wright.
Slahi, 54, wrote a bestselling memoir about his Gitmo experience that was made into a 2021 film drama nominated for two Golden Globe awards.
Zuley allegedly supervised interrogations of Slahi that included beatings, sensory deprivation, and threats to bring his mother to the camp, implying she would be raped. The abuse was detailed in a 2008 report by the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee.
Slahi, after 14 years at Guantánamo, was released to his native Mauritania in 2016.
Zuley and his attorneys have not returned WBEZ messages seeking comment.
Chip Mitchell reports for WBEZ Chicago on policing, public safety and public health. Follow him at Bluesky and X. Contact him at cmitchell@wbez.org.