The Commission is committed to fairly and accurately investigating claims that torture was used to obtain confessions leading to criminal convictions and, where warranted, providing those claimants a means of relief. It is  also committed to rejecting meritless claims where convictions were soundly reached without use of a coerced confession.

During the 1980's and 1990's, there were a series of allegations that confessions had been coerced by Chicago Police Detectives under the command of Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge by using torture. Burge was suspended from the Chicago Police Department in 1991 and fired in 1993 after the Police Department Review Board ruled that he had in fact used torture.

Between 2002 and 2006, a Cook County Special Prosecutor, retired Justice Edward Egan, investigated these allegations. Special Prosecutor Egan concluded that Burge and officers under his command had likely committed torture, but that any crimes were outside the state statute of limitations and could not be prosecuted.

In 2008, the U.S. Attorney brought a federal indictment, charging Jon Burge with perjury and obstruction of justice, for denying that he had participated in or known about torture. Burge was convicted by a jury in 2010, and sentenced to 4½ years in prison.

In 2016, the legislature amended the Act so that others allegedly tortured by officers not connected to Jon Burge could also file a claim.