An important change in the public perception of capital punishment occurred about 15 years ago as stories of death row inmates being exonerated came to the surface. Foremost among these stories was that of Anthony Porter, who was close to execution when another man confessed to the murder. The truth was supposedly dug up by idealistic young journalism students who succeeded where the criminal justice professionals had failed.
The story was almost too good to be true for the anti-death-penalty movement. And now we know it likely was not true.
Some years ago, I attended a talk by the lawyer for Alstory Simon, the man who confessed and went to prison while Porter was freed. He said it wasn't the journalism students who got a confession from the "real" killer, it was a hired investigator. On top of that, he said, the investigator used tactics that would result in a conviction being thrown out if a police officer had used them, and possibly a civil rights prosecution to boot.
Years later, the lawyer's efforts have born fruit, and Alstory Simon is the one who is exonerated. Jim Stingl has this story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
The story was almost too good to be true for the anti-death-penalty movement. And now we know it likely was not true.
Some years ago, I attended a talk by the lawyer for Alstory Simon, the man who confessed and went to prison while Porter was freed. He said it wasn't the journalism students who got a confession from the "real" killer, it was a hired investigator. On top of that, he said, the investigator used tactics that would result in a conviction being thrown out if a police officer had used them, and possibly a civil rights prosecution to boot.
Years later, the lawyer's efforts have born fruit, and Alstory Simon is the one who is exonerated. Jim Stingl has this story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
Last week, Simon walked out of prison a free man after Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez announced that her office, after a yearlong investigation, was vacating the charges against him and ending his 37-year sentence.
The investigation by the Innocence Project, she said, "involved a series of alarming tactics that were not only coercive and absolutely unacceptable by law enforcement standards, they were potentially in violation of Mr. Simon's constitutionally protected rights."
The truth took 15 years to come out. That's 15 years that Simon, now 64, spent behind bars.* * *Protess and two of his journalism students came to Simon's home in the 200 block of E. Wright St. in Milwaukee and told him they were working on a book about unsolved murders. According to Simon, Protess told him, "We know you did it."
Then Simon received a visit from Ciolino and another man. They had guns and badges and claimed to be Chicago police officers. They said they knew he had killed Green and Hillard, so he better confess if he hoped to avoid the death penalty.
They showed him a video of his ex-wife, Inez Jackson, implicating him for the crime -- a claim she recanted on her death bed in 2005 -- and another video of a supposed witness to the crime who turned out to be an actor.
They coached Simon through a videotaped confession, promising him a light sentence and money from book and movie deals on the case. Simon, admittedly on a three-day crack cocaine bender, struggled to understand what was going on.
Perhaps worst of all, they hooked up Simon with a free lawyer to represent him, Jack Rimland, without telling him that Rimland was a friend of Ciolino and Protess and in on their plan to free Porter.
At Rimland's urging, Simon pleaded guilty to the crime and even offered what sounded like a sincere apology to Green's family in court. As added leverage to make him cooperate, Rimland had told Simon he was suspected in a Milwaukee murder, though nothing ever came of it.* * *When his abuses came to light, Protess was suspended by Northwestern and has since retired from there. He isn't talking, but he is now president of the Chicago Innocence Project which investigates wrongful convictions. Ciolino put out a statement saying Simon also had confessed to a Milwaukee TV reporter, his lawyer and others. "You explain that," he said.
We know now that the explanation was that Simon was snared in a trap set by people who wanted to end the death penalty, no matter what the cost. Once they convinced Simon it was for his own good, he was all in.
This case once furnished the poster boy for the anti-death-penalty movement. It may now stand as the exemplar of that movement's bottomless dishonesty.
So Anthony Porter was guilty all along? Story didn't really say it but that is the impression I got.