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Innocence Project Frames an Innocent Man

Brainster

Penultimate Amazing
Brainster
Joined
May 26, 2006
Messages
21,940
Here's a shocker:

The first time I wrote about Alstory Simon, then a Milwaukee north sider, was in 1999, right after he confessed to a double murder in Chicago.

Simon's shocking admission — not to police but to an investigator working for Northwestern University's Medill Innocence Project — led to the release and pardon of a man on death row for the crime, and ultimately to the death penalty being abolished in Illinois.
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Victory for the Innocence Project, right?

Um, no. Simon has now been released based on the details of how the Innocence Project elicited his confession:

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.
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What, they did it without any genetic samples?

Who really dunnit? Simon or Porter?

So now, what is the status on Porter?
 
Tunnel vision taken to the nth degree. The whole thing's a shame from start to finish for all involved.
 
Wow. Seems they used exactly the sort of tactics to elicit a confession (possibly a false one) that they usually criticize.
 
Puppycow said:
Is this "Medill Innocence Project" the same thing though?
I looked on the web site of the Innocence Project and couldn't see any information about this case.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/news/Blog.php
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From the story in the OP I think these are different organizations with similar goals. I don't know exactly what ties, if any, they have with the national organization:

When his abuses came to light, Protess was suspended by Northwestern and has since retired from there. The Medill Innocence Project has been renamed The Medill Justice Project. Protess isn't talking, but he is now president of the Chicago Innocence Project, which investigates wrongful convictions.
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Amazing that they are simply refusing to talk about it, and their Web page doesn't even mention it, not even to defend or explain themselves or anything.
 
Puppycow said:
From the story in the OP I think these are different organizations with similar goals. I don't know exactly what ties, if any, they have with the national organization:
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According to the Innocence Project's FAQ,

Q. What is the relationship between the Innocence Project and other organizations doing similar work?

A. The Innocence Project is a founding member (along with several longtime partners) of the Innocence Network, an affiliation of independent organizations working to overturn wrongful convictions and improve the criminal justice system.

There are more than 62 independent organizations from around the world involved in the Innocence Network. The organizations vary in size, scope and criteria for case acceptance, but all coordinate to share information and expertise.
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The Innocence Network lists the Innocence Project as a New York organization, but while it lists Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions (also listed on the Innocence Project's "Other Projects" page) under Illinois, it doesn't list Medill (based at the same university in Chicago as the Center on Wrongful Convictions), either under its old name or its new name.

The only relation the Innocence Project and the organization in Brainster's article appear to have is that they're just two of a number of different groups that have the same stated objectives, but aren't otherwise connected.
 
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Puppycow said:
Amazing that they are simply refusing to talk about it, and their Web page doesn't even mention it, not even to defend or explain themselves or anything.
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Here's the Medill Justice Project's Web Site. Not a peep about it.

http://www.medilljusticeproject.org/

If you search for Alstory Simon in their search box, there's nothing.

No explanation, no apology, no defense, no acknowledgment that this even exists.
 
A'isha said:
According to the Innocence Project's FAQ,



The Innocence Network lists the Innocence Project as a New York organization, but while it lists Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions (also listed on the Innocence Project's "Other Projects" page) under Illinois, it doesn't list Medill (based at the same university in Chicago as the Center on Wrongful Convictions), either under its old name or its new name.

The only relation the Innocence Project and the organization in Brainster's article appear to have is that they're just two of a number of different groups that have the same stated objectives, but aren't otherwise connected.
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Also the "Chicago Innocence Project" which Protess is now the president of (according to the article) is not listed as a member of the network either. It's not clear however if there used to be a relationship and they kicked him out after this came to light or if there never was a relationship.
 
A'isha said:
According to the Innocence Project's FAQ,



The Innocence Network lists the Innocence Project as a New York organization, but while it lists Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions (also listed on the Innocence Project's "Other Projects" page) under Illinois, it doesn't list Medill (based at the same university in Chicago as the Center on Wrongful Convictions), either under its old name or its new name.

The only relation the Innocence Project and the organization in Brainster's article appear to have is that they're just two of a number of different groups that have the same stated objectives, but aren't otherwise connected.
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They at least don't seem to have listed Medill since January of 2013:

Medill Innocence Project
Medill School of Journalism
Northwestern University
1845 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208
Phone: 847-491-5840


Cases Accepted:

cases of actual innocence within 250 miles of Evanston, IL, with preference to cases within 100 miles
DNA and non-DNA cases
investigative/journalism services only
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https://web.archive.org/web/20130104163747/http://www.innocencenetwork.org/members

There is also a link there to the archived copies of the Medill website.

ETA: The link on that archived page jumps to the archive copies of the renamed website. Here is a link to archived copies of the original website:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110903075633/http://www.medillinnocenceproject.org/
 
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Seems efficient enough. If you elicit a false confession, it should be much easier to get the thing thrown out later on. Why would you spend your time trying to find innocent people falsely convicted, when you can just create them yourself?

Innocence all around.
 
Hrm.

Looks like that one would have been better entitled 'The Guilt Project!'

Perhaps also a reminder of what can happen when fighting 'monsters.'
 
Anita Alvarez and wrongful convictions

Here is a report from Steve Mills and coworkers at the Tribune. "At a news conference, Alvarez questioned the integrity of David Protess, then a Northwestern University journalism professor whose students initially investigated the murders. She also criticized the private investigator, Paul Ciolino, who obtained Simon's videotaped confession using an actor to falsely implicate Simon, saying that his tactics were "coercive" and "unacceptable by law enforcement standards." She also raised questions about the independence of attorney Jack Rimland, who agreed to represent Simon at the suggestion of Ciolino, whom he knew." One problem is that Alvarez's judgment is open to question. The other is that if the tactics used to obtain Simon's statement were wrong, then so are the tactics commonly employed by police using the Reid technique.
 
Puppycow said:
Wow. Seems they used exactly the sort of tactics to elicit a confession (possibly a false one) that they usually criticize.
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Another illustration -- as if one was needed -- that you never talk to anybody about a crime you did or didn't do without a lawyer at your side. It's also illustrates one way cops elicit false confessions: "Look, we know you did it, we've got witnesses, but we know you were sick, you were high, you didn't know what you were doing, hell, you don't even remember it. Just confess and we'll get you some help...."
 
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