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CHICAGO — A Northwestern University professor and journalism students who spent three years investigating the case of a man convicted in the 1978 killing of a security guard say they have evidence that shows that prosecutors put the wrong man behind bars.
But in the quest to prove his innocence, they may have to defend themselves, too.Cook County prosecutors have outraged the university community by issuing subpoenas to professor David Protess seeking his students’ grades, his syllabus and their private e-mail. Prosecutors say that because the team was made up of students, they may have been under pressure to prove the case to get a good grade.It’s a first for Protess and his investigative reporting students, who since 1996 have helped free 11 innocent men from prison, including Death Row. Their work is also credited with prompting then-Gov. George Ryan to empty Illinois Death Row in 2003, reigniting a national debate on the death penalty."It is worrisome that the response of the justice system is not to interview the witnesses but to investigate the investigators," said Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center.The prosecutor’s office — led by Anita Alvarez, who last year was elected Cook County state’s attorney — said it is attempting to determine whether students may have skewed their findings to get a good grade."We’re engaging in a discovery process as we would in any criminal investigation," said Sally Daly, spokeswoman for Alvarez.Northwestern’s attorneys have filed a motion to quash the subpoenas, and the judge may act on that Tuesday, when a hearing is set for arguments about whether there should be a new trial in the case of Anthony McKinney.Protess and his students spent three academic years investigating the case of McKinney. He is a suburban Chicago man serving a life sentence for killing a security guard in 1978.After interviewing witnesses and inspecting documents, they’re convinced that McKinney had nothing to do with the murder.
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