Prosectuors investigate “Innocence Project” team
From CNN.com…
…In our investigation, we reenacted the crime scene and determined it was impossible to discern any words spoken or shouted from 50 yards away.
Later, we tracked down the then-teenage witness who said he saw McKinney that night. The man recanted his testimony on videotape, and told us police beat him.
We also found a fire department document that indicated the paramedics were called to the police station during McKinney’s interrogation, raising the question of whether he was roughed up during his interrogation as he said he was.
We interviewed the “gang-bangers” who chased him that night. They acknowledged they chased him after the Ali fight because they were angry he had damaged their car earlier.
Finally, we identified alternate suspects, one of whom stated on videotape that he was there when the murder was committed — and that McKinney wasn’t.
After I graduated, the investigation continued. Once Protess felt there was enough evidence, after nine teams of student reporters had worked on the case, the information was shared with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern’s Law School and McKinney’s legal team.
The audio and videotaped interviews, affidavits and other on-the-record interview transcripts we worked on also were presented to the district attorney’s office. Last year, the new evidence was submitted to the Cook County Circuit Court in an effort to exonerate McKinney.
I am still haunted by the case. I am still haunted by my visit to see McKinney in prison — the gentle face of a man who still has hope after so many years.
A spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, Sally Daly, told me that we, as students, were “conducting these interviews for a grade in this class.”
She went on to say the “request for the grades goes to explore any possible bias, interest or motive.”
The claim is that we, as students, were motivated to get witnesses to play into a preconceived thesis of innocence in order to get good grades. I think I speak for my fellow alums when I say this class was never about grades.
It has always been about searching for truth and justice for people whose cases didn’t get due diligence from a bogged-down system. This was about journalism in its purest and most passionate form.
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Stumble It!
Everyone living in the U.S. today needs to read the recently published book “Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent” by Harvey A. Silverglate about U.S. prosecutorial abuse. They don’t care about innocence or guilt… they only care about winning. It’s really bad when prosecutors start going after journalism students simply for uncovering the truth. It’s a waste of taxpayers money.