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Ronald Kitchen

“I can see some light shining through now.” – Ronald Kitchen

Ronald Kitchen is a member of the Death Row 10 -- a group of African American men who were brutally tortured by Chicago police at Area 2 and 3 Headquarters on the South side of Chicago and forced into giving confessions that were used to convict them. In January 2003, former Illinois Governor Ryan pardoned four of the Death Row 10 and commuted all death sentences. Ronald is no longer on death row, but he now faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He is an innocent man fighting for his freedom.

Ronald’s nightmare begins

On the night of August 25, 1988, Ronald Kitchen had no idea he was about to suffer through the worst night of his life. On his way back from the grocery store, where he was picking up some cookie dough for his kids, Chicago police grabbed him and took him to Area 3 Headquarters. The police claimed that they were charging him with the theft of an automobile. However, this charge was quickly changed – the police were determined to charge Ronnie with murder.

Tortured by Chicago’s finest

Ronald did not know about the years of systematic torture by the police at Areas 2 and 3 under the command of Commander Jon Burge. By night’s end, Ronnie would know the torturers at Area 3 all too well. For as they told him, “we have ways of making niggers talk.” Burge and Officer Michael Kill brutally beat Ronald with a blackjack and a telephone book. Ronald was beaten so badly in the groin that he was forced to wear a sling sac for weeks afterward, and he has medical records to prove this. To stop the torture, Ronald “confessed” to a crime he did not commit.

The word of a jailhouse snitch

Ronald did not know the victims who were murdered. There was no physical evidence against him. There wasn’t even any circumstantial evidence. The only evidence brought against Ronald was the word of a “jail house snitch.” As reported in “The Failure of the Death Penalty in Illinois,” the five-part Chicago Tribune series, “Willie Williams, a three-time felon, testified he read newspaper accounts of the 1988 slayings of five people on Chicago's South Side before he contacted police to report that a friend, Ronald Kitchen, had confessed during a collect phone call. Telephone company records showed no call from the prison where Williams was being held. When police moved Williams from Vandalia Correctional Center to the Cook County Jail's witness quarters, he made more than a half dozen tape-recorded calls to Kitchen. But Williams failed to elicit any information about the slayings.”

Railroaded on to death row

Without the tortured confession and without the testimony of the jailhouse snitch, the state has no case against Ronald. Like so many others who are up against a criminal “injustice” system with the odds stacked against them, Ronald is Black and poor. He was targeted by the police because of the color of his skin, and he could not afford a dream team legal defense to prove his innocence. Like the four men who were pardoned by Ryan, Ronald was railroaded on to death row. He deserves to be free.

Join the Campaign To End The Death Penalty (CEDP) and Ronald’s family in calling for justice for Ronald Kitchen. Contact the CEDP at (773) 955-4841. You can also write to Ronnie at:

Ronald Kitchen #BO9130
PO Box 112
Joliet, IL 60434