Targeting the Medill Innocence Project

by Te-Ping Chen · 2010-01-15 12:30:00 UTC
Topics:

At a time when student journalists are gaining traction across the country -- linking with partners that include, for example, the New York Times -- one of their flagship organizations in Illinois, Medill University's Innocence Project, is getting roundly lambasted by the state.

Founded in 1999 and led by veteran reporter David Protess, undergraduates at the Innocence Project have uncovered evidence that to date has freed 11 innocent men from prison, five of them on death row. They’ve been featured by 60 Minutes, and are credited with helping reorient America’s debate on the death penalty.

But now, the Cook County state attorney's office is subpoenaing their latest investigation, seeking grading criteria and emails from students involved in the case. The attorney's office says that they respect Illinois's reporter shield law, and that they believe it should apply to student journalists -- just not these ones.

According to the state, students from the Innocence Project bribed one source by giving him $60 in cab fare, and 'flirted' with another to get testimony. (Hmmm. Should flirting disqualify you from getting protection under shield laws? If so, at least a third of the reporters I know wouldn't be covered.)

Medill students aren’t alone in their fight to take on the tough cases bypassed by other reporters. At the Center for Public Integrity, students from Georgetown University have been working for over a year to identify former Wall Street Journal Daniel Pearl's real killer. In 2008, students at Columbia contributed to a front-page investigation at the New York Times.

Neither are they alone in dismissing the state’s gambit against an institution that has embarrassed Illinois’s criminal justice system for years. This week, the Associated Press, the New York Times, CBS News, and the Washington Post -- along with over a dozen other news groups -- all filed a brief in support of the Innocence Project's crusade.

To read more about the case, check out the February issue of Chicago Magazine, which has a great profile of the Medill Innocence Project's Protess, as well as his current nemesis and state attorney, Anita Alvarez.

Photo Credit: Truthout.org

Te-Ping Chen Te-Ping Chen is a freelance writer and U.S. Truman Scholar whose writing has appeared in the Nation Magazine, the South China Morning Post magazine, Le Soir, and Slate.com.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Changing Direction in the UK
NEXT STORY:
Make the Call! Stop the Torture of Special Needs Children in Massachusetts

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.