Judge Rules Northwestern Students Must Turn Over Emails In Murder Case
The Chicago Tribune reports today that Judge Dianne Cannon has ruled that more than 500 emails between former Northwestern University journalism professor David Protess and his students detailing their efforts to free prisoner Anthony McKinney must be turned over to prosecutors. Judge Cannon held that the students were "acting as investigators in a criminal proceeding" and further stated that "In this case, the Medill students worked at the direction of Anthony McKinney's attorneys, conducting interviews, gathering evidence" and that "while a book may be written or an article published. . . the information is subject to the rules of discovery." We here on the defense side of these police cases have long opined that NU's law students act as investigators, not journalists. Judge Cannon agreed. Will be interesting to see where things go from here. . . Stay tuned.
