A Cook County judge will decide this summer whether to overturn a conviction in one of the most notorious murders in Chicago history after hearing closing arguments on Monday. Circuit Court Judge Adrienne Davis will decide whether there is enough evidence to uphold the conviction of Anthony Garrett in connection with the murder of 7-year-old Dantrell Davis, who was shot and killed by a sniper at Cabrini-Green in 1992 as he and his mother walked to school. The background: Dantrell’s killing outraged the city and became a symbol of the gang violence plaguing Chicago and the Chicago’s notorious public housing. In 1992, 936 people were killed in Chicago, setting a record that still stands. Garrett said he confessed after then-CPD Detective Richard Zuley and other detectives beat him on at least two occasions with rubber hoses and a phone book on his torso, genitals and legs, court records show. Garrett later recanted his confession. But prosecutors argued Garrett’s alibi at the time of the shooting didn’t hold up and his claims of severe leg injuries caused by his beating while in police custody were disputed by medical experts who testified in this case.
Zuley testified during Garrett’s 1994 trial that he confessed to accidentally shooting the boy while firing at rival gang members from the 10th floor of a high-rise apartment building. The weapon used to kill Dantrell was never found, gun powder residue was not found on Garrett’s clothing, and no one testified they saw Garrett kill the boy, court records show. Garrett said he was not informed of his rights or given access to an attorney before he was interrogated in a small windowless room, where he was denied access to the bathroom and prevented from lying down to sleep for more than 24 hours, court records show.
Garrett was convicted and sentenced to 100 years in prison. In 2023, the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission found that there was “sufficient, credible evidence” that Garrett was tortured by Zuley, and urged that a Cook County judge review his conviction. That finding relied, in part, on testimony that Zuley tortured a Mauritanian man being held in a U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. A member of the U.S. Naval Reserve, Zuley was sent to Guantánamo after the terror attacks.
Judge Davis will not rule before a July 14 hearing.
