The Northwestern University Innocence Project had earlier assisted in the exoneration of four men on death row. “When I stopped working for him, I accepted the futility of pursuing a journalism career. When Northwestern lawyers sought a new trial for McKinney, prosecutors responded by issuing subpoenas for all manner of records from the Project. He’s one of the more lauded and controversial professors at Northwestern. The Medill Justice Project continued for Spring Quarter 2018, with Medill senior associate dean Tim Franklin, Prof. Desiree Hanford and George Papajohn of The Chicago Tribune instructing. Northwestern said in a statement that it “looks forward to being vindicated in a court of law.” While at the Post, Klein won a Gerald Loeb Award for his investigation of AOL’s takeover of Time Warner. "Northwestern denies all wrongdoing in this matter and looks forward to being vindicated in a court of law," said a statement from the university in Evanston, Illinois. “But then to see one that literally hit so close to home made me question and think back on everything.”, There is a non-disclosure agreement on the University’s findings in the investigation into Klein, Whitaker told The Daily. “I could incorporate outside Medill reporting about wrongful convictions with the teaching of investigative reporting.”. “There was no interrogation,” Ciolino said. We made it easy for you to exercise your right to vote. ... Former Medill Innocence Project private investigator’s $25 million countersuit against Alstory Simon dismissed According to the Chicago Tribune, they planned to play tapes for Drake of people saying he was involved in Lundahl's killing. Northwestern University students uncovered a massive corruption scandal in the Chicago Police Department, 5 leading Illinois Governor George Ryan to empty the state’s 167-person death row just before leaving office in 2003. Today is National Voter Registration Day! The matter is rooted in the successful efforts of the Innocence Project of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism to challenge Anthony Porter’s murder conviction. "It was all lies," one witness testified. I fucked up,” Protess said. “Whether it’s the faculty or the students, it’s like an Etch A Sketch every quarter: You shake the sketch, and you start over.”, The Daily Northwestern • Copyright 2021 • FLEX WordPress Theme by SNO • Log in. The Medill Innocence Project has been behind investigations that brought freedom to more than 10 inmates wrongly convicted of murder – some even from Death Row. He said he wishes there was more they could have done to expedite Caine’s release, but ultimately, it was “out of our hands.”. "You are sitting on a mother lode of volunteers in a law school," she says. Meanwhile, the program’s tumultuous history remains in the not-so-distant past, and Klein is writing a book about the aftermath of the allegations against him. EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University journalism students supported by the Medill Innocence Project have published two groundbreaking stories: a profile of the murder victim’s wife and another based on interviews with a key eyewitness who said his childhood friend, Ariel Gomez, is guilty of the murder for which he was convicted. Over the course of his time teaching investigative reporting, Protess faced other allegations of “questionably ethical reporting tactics” including an incident where a student posed as a worker from ComEd, an electric utility company. Email sign up Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from the Innocence Project: The year after Caine’s release from prison, he reached out to Merritt through his lawyer. “I’ve done a lot of soul searching to try to find a different way of doing things and approaching things.”. “It gives us an opportunity to write stories that impact more people, especially people who live in marginalized or disenfranchised communities.”. His and other cases eventually spurred Illinois to abolish the death penalty. Their allegations included Klein’s “controlling, discriminatory, emotionally and verbally abusive behavior,” as well as his attempts to kiss a then-prospective female employee and talking about his sex life, among other accusations. Caine was released in 2011, due in large part to the work of students at the University of Chicago Law School’s Exoneration Project. In 2004, students went downstate to interview Tony Drake, a man who they suspected was involved in the 1978 murder of security guard Donald Lundahl. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the investigation into the recordings is just one skirmish in a prolonged battle between the Innocence Project and state prosecutors. “Does that sound like a guy that I stuck a gun in his ear and made him confess to something he didn’t do?”. Though not all their work found defendants to be innocent, Protess oversaw over a dozen exonerations in his time at Medill. Since the early 1990s, students have dug up evidence on potential wrongful convictions, and under Protess’ oversight, students’ work led to over a dozen exonerations. Still, Alvarez and the state's attorney's office show no signs of letting up on the Project -- or, for that matter, on McKinney. “I just wanted to try to help and keep (the project) going because it was so important,” Klein told The Daily, “given the fact that there is actually quite a bit of suffering that goes on all over the country and in the world among those who have been wrongfully accused and wrongfully convicted.”. “Simon was writing letters from jail, thanking (Protess), thanking me, telling me I treated him well,” Ciolino said. None of this was mentioned in the 60 Minutes story, despite its reliance on the Innocence Project's work, which is why Alvarez's complaints of bias are credible. Right now, changes are still being made to the course offerings. Much of the scandal grew out of some of the most brutal crimes. Justice Perverted: How The Innocence Project at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism Sent an Innocent Man to Prison: Amazon.de: Crawford, William B.: Fremdsprachige Bücher Meanwhile, in July 2017, the Innocence Project and Daniel Medwed, a professor at Northwestern Law School, filed a formal complaint against the now former assistant attorney generals with state’s Board of Bar Overseers, which you can read more about here. On November 2, 2017, Kerry Masterson was exonerated after being wrongly convicted of a 2009 robbery and murder that occurred in a candy store on the west side of Chicago, Illinois. “Students… did kick-ass reporting about the criminal justice system,” Protess said. Karen L. Daniel, a nationally known wrongful convictions attorney who led Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions (CWC), died in December in Oak Park, Illinois.She was 62. Northwestern University Bachelor of Science Journalism (newspaper/new media focus) Activities and Societies: The Daily Northwestern, The Innocence Project, Delta Delta Delta Northwestern university innocence project Northwestern university innocence project * Canada fund idea raising school * High school internships cdc * Sarasota county school spring break 2013 * Harvard graduate school transfer credit * Eulogio rodriguez elementary school rizal * Elsie harper anderson american university * Sample letter of recommendation for medical school from physician *… Medill is a leader in education and research in both journalism and integrated marketing communications. The program still investigated potential wrongful convictions, including shaken-baby syndrome cases, where serious brain injury results from shaking an infant or toddler. 87, 01.2009, p. 1-58. In the meantime, students have continued seeking investigative journalism opportunities. However, in May 2009, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office — then led by Anita Alvarez — subpoenaed the students’ notes, emails, grades, voice memos and videos, among other items. Missbrauch melden. Thirty students from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism Innocence Project spent three years investigating the case of Anthony McKinney, who has been serving a life sentence for the murder and armed robbery of a security guard since 1982, and eventually unearthed evidence they believe implicates two other men in the murder. Alvarez, who now works for a consulting firm, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Still, Hanford said the class has to move forward, despite being aware of what happened under Klein and Protess. Following an announcement from the University that Protess would not be teaching investigative journalism in Spring Quarter 2011, he took a leave of absence and went on to found the Chicago Innocence Project, continuing to work on wrongful convictions. A good read. Porter was released in 1999, largely due to investigative reporting conducted by Protess and his students. The Innocence Project-affiliated lawyer who wrote the memo [on the legality of the wire] in 2006, Rebekah Wanger, wrote that she didn't think the students violated the state's eavesdropping statute because the law exempts recordings made with "reasonable suspicion" the recorded party will commit a crime against the recording party on tape. Those working at the project suspected that a different individual, Alstory Simon, had committed the murders. Former Illinois Gov. Hanford and Papajohn continued instructing the course in the fall, after Klein voluntarily resigned from the University in August 2018. “I’m a flawed and imperfect person. Joining Hanford to instruct the course was Debbie Cenziper, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who writes for the Washington Post and became Medill’s director of investigative reporting in September. The trial could also pose a dilemma for the Chicago media, particularly the Chicago Tribune, which wrote steadily in support of the Porter exoneration. Protess’ students looked into the case from 2003 to 2006, making headway in 2004. Kenneth Nixon, a Detroit man convicted of a double murder, was ordered freed Thursday, Feb. 18, two years after serious questions were raised about his case in an investigation by student journalists at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Klein took a leave of absence in February 2018. Merritt was one of about 20 who enrolled in Winter Quarter of 1998. “It seemed like a good approach to take.”. In February 2015, Simon filed a $40 million lawsuit against Northwestern, Protess and Ciolino, among others, seeking redress for his time in prison. Across Protess’ and Klein’s tenures, students said the program operated with little administrative oversight or checks and balances. Protess said he stayed in touch regularly with Caine while he was in prison, and they have remained close since his exoneration. More recently, Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez were found to have been wrongfully convicted after having been prosecuted by Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan for the 1983 rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico . Home; About Us; About Us. A trademark dispute over the term “innocence project” provided an opportunity for a rebrand, and the program was renamed the Medill Justice Project in December 2012. “They get book deals.”. The The high-profile investigative reporter who heads the Medill Innocence Project says the students were well within the law in making the recording, which was done only out of concerns for their safety. The Medill Justice Project relied on outside donors, whom Stevick understood to be the program’s “primary” source of funding. But Whitaker said Klein “was presented with the findings and chose to resign.”, Klein told The Daily he was never sanctioned by the University and resigned because the situation was taking a “huge toll” on his family. “Already three people were sitting there, waiting to get in.”. Protess said there was, however, a single valid claim alleged against him: He altered an email regarding who had access to memos before forwarding it to the University’s lawyers, having been instructed not to include false information, but he didn’t tell them it was altered. The students gathered evidence exposing serious flaws in the prosecution. It is generally illegal to record a conversation without the other party's consent in Illinois. The court noted that the highly publicized Porter exoneration prompted former Governor George Ryan to call for a moratorium on Illinois’ death penalty. At first, in handling the 2009 subpoena, the University put “a lot of money and moral commitment into making that fight,” defending its students and Protess by claiming protection under reporter’s privilege, Protess said. The book isn’t a defense of himself, Klein said, but rather tries to find “goodness” from his own experience. The Northwestern University Innocence Project had earlier assisted in the exoneration of four men on death row. A University investigation did not find sufficient evidence to support the woman’s allegations in 2015. Medill decided to continue the class in Klein’s absence, and the students published a 3,500-word story in the Los Angeles Times. Protess also said there was not a “single circumstance” where students bribed a source. “So I just made a conscious decision that it was worth it for me to learn.”. In: Washington University Law Review, Vol. Having secured Drake’s tape, Benn was “exuberant” and expected a swift release for McKinney. Simon recanted his confession and claimed he had been coerced by Ciolino. ... aspersions on the student journalists of the Northwestern University Medill Innocence Project. More recently, Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez were found to have been wrongfully convicted after having been prosecuted by Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan for the 1983 rape and murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. Our innovative teaching and research focus on enduring skills and values as well as new techniques and technologies that are changing the way stories are told and consumed in today's digital world. Feb 17, 2015 5:14 PM. Lesen Sie weiter. “We all brought different strengths to the table,” Hanford said. Media outlets lined up against the subpoenas, fearing an incursion into the privacy of sources. At least one attorney found that to be within the bounds of the law, the Trib reports: The Innocence Project-affiliated lawyer who wrote the memo [on the legality of the wire] in 2006, Rebekah Wanger, wrote that she didn't think the students violated the state's eavesdropping statute because the law exempts recordings made with "reasonable suspicion" the recorded party will commit a crime against the recording party on tape. The groundbreaking investigative story about Donald Watkins and the 2004 murder for which he was convicted is the work of six Northwestern University undergraduates in a Medill investigative journalism class. He said his portrayal in the media is “far from the truth.”. Benn — who has continued to stay in touch with his former instructor — said Protess’ first concern over the subpoena could hinder the Medill Innocence Project’s pending cases. But it raises "serious legal and ethical questions about the methods that the professor and his students employed during their investigation," State's Attorney Anita Alvarez wrote in a statement. “I don’t think it’s fair to put that kind of pressure on anyone,” Hanford said. “It takes three passes for any class to really be cemented and sort of figure out what it’s going to be,” Whitaker said. Porter's release was an early victory for Innocence Project programs that work to overturn wrongful convictions. Patti Wolter and Peter Slevin took over for the rest of Winter Quarter, picking up a case about halfway through the term. The state, of course, thinks it got the right man in the Lundahl murder, and is reluctant to consider alternatives to its case. But in the 20 years since the 1999 founding of the Medill Innocence Project, scandal has embroiled the investigative journalism program at Medill: Allegations of unethical reporting, a subpoena for students’ grades and notes and a lawsuit against the University and professor all arose involving cases Protess and students investigated. And when the Alphawood Foundation, a Chicago-based grant-making organization, offered to financially support the class’ work, the Medill Innocence Project grew exponentially. Patterson was sentenced to death, and Caine was sentenced to life in prison. In 2015, Simon sued Northwestern for $40 million; the case was settled in 2018 for an undisclosed amount. The Innocence Project is affiliated with Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. And when Alvarez subpoenaed the Projects' records, they were doctored. The accusations that students bribed witnesses or flirted with them were “patently false,” he said. Kara Stevick (Medill ’19), a former student in the program, said she noticed the University using it to recruit new students, including advertising it to the Medill-Northwestern Journalism Institute for high schoolers. The Medill Innocence Project was founded in 1999. “There was no threat, there was no animosity, there was no raised voices.”. After further review, the University’s stance shifted. Past students also said they felt pressured to produce investigations that would lead to exonerations on tight deadlines. He later voluntarily resigned. One woman, who remained anonymous like many of the letter’s authors, wrote to the Medill Me Too group in 2018 that Klein’s behavior made her feel “so horribly uncomfortable” that she skipped Medill’s graduation ceremony so she wouldn’t have to see him. Shortly after the class began, she started reporting on the case of Aaron Patterson and Eric Caine, co-defendants convicted in the 1986 murder of a Chicago couple. He filed a defamation countersuit at the federal level that was dismissed in 2017. Growing up watching Dateline, investigative journalism had always piqued Hayley Miller’s (Medill ’19) interest. More than a month later, 19 additional women reached out to the Medill Me Too group with their own experiences. Alvarez also accused Protess and students in the Medill Innocence Project of unethical reporting tactics, including bribing witnesses and flirting with them for information. “There is nothing more important than educating people who went out into the world to make a difference, to have socially responsible careers.”. David Protess, however, paints quite a different picture. The cases are challenging to investigate, Klein said, because there are often minimal witnesses and evidence. ‘A Murder in the Park’: The Innocence Project That Wasn’t MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE In 1999, a team of Northwestern University journalism students freed Anthony Porter days before his … While the circuit court dismissed the case for failing to meet the statute of limitations, an Illinois appeals court reversed the decision last week, sending it back to trial court. “We were not flush, by any means,” Protess said. "Students are eager for real-life experience." Some of the allegations referred to 2015, when an administrative assistant who worked for the Medill Justice Project accused Klein of harassment after she left the position. Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism (Innocence Project) sought to exonerate Anthony Porter for the 1982 murders of Jerry Hillard and Marilyn Green. 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