Ever since this case broke over a year ago, we have called upon Northwestern, many times, to investigate the work of the Medill Innocence Project and their handling of the Anthony McKinney case. Finally, that investigation will occur. According to the Chicago Tribune: Northwestern has hired former U.S. attorney Anton Valukas to look into the project's investigation of the hotly contested case as well as other potential ethical violations by Protess and his students. New allegations have surfaced that students were making secret recording of witness interviews, which under most circumstances is a violation of Illinois law.
This is a step in the right direction. At the same time, however, Northwestern and Medill's reluctance to disclose their entire investigation and comply with the State's Attorneys subpoena for over a year now has shed light on their mission to free McKinney. If Medill and Northwestern actually believe that he is innocent - they would be doing everything possible to make sure he doesn't spend one more "unjust" day in prison. From day one, they would have opened up their folders and records and claimed "we have nothing to hide" - they didn't. For over a year now, they have sought to protect their own interests - not McKinney.
Journalists and law students have been investigating criminal cases for years. Much of their work has been used to convince judges to free prisoners convicted of serious crimes such as murder and rape. For years, judges and prosecutors have accepted the evidence gathered by journalists and students and have never questioned the authenticity of their new evidence. That is now starting to change. In the last few months we have seen Cook County prosecutors subpoenaing student records - searching for why and how witnesses are changing their stories after all these years.
Now, it appears this trend is moving to Michigan. The metro times is reporting: that a Wayne County prosecutor wants University of Michigan Law School students to testify against a man they've been working to exonerate. Innocence Clinic co-director David Moran is asking Wayne County Circuit Judge Tim Kenny to strike the students from the witness list, as well as a journalist who sat in on some of the clinic sessions last year as part of a fellowship. Moran argued at a hearing Monday that the students have the same confidentiality privileges that lawyers have, and that assistant prosecutor Robert Stevens should not be able to call them to try to make his case. "What Mr. Stevens has requested would decimate our legal team," Moran said.
As part of their work with the Innocence Clinic, the students helped their professors last year convince Kenny to set aside Dwayne Provience's 2001 murder conviction. At the time, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy agreed evidence was withheld from Provience's defense at his trial and that he should be granted a new one. Kenny released the 36-year-old Detroit man from prison and scheduled a new trial for April 5. Provience had been serving a 30-to-60-year sentence for the March 2000 death of Rene Hunter, who was fatally gunned down at a northwest Detroit intersection. Police have said it was drug-related.
Stevens filed his witness list March 5, and it includes six students who have been enrolled or interned with the clinic, another law student who was present at witness interviews and a California journalist named Peggy Lowe. A writer for The Orange County Register, she was part of the prestigious Michigan journalism fellowship program last year, and attended clinic sessions and interviews.
At Monday's hearing, Stevens responded to Moran's objections to the students' possible testimony. Stevens said because the students have had statements published in newspapers, have interviewed Wiley and appeared in a YouTube video about the case, he should be able to call them to the witness stand. "All this is fair game," Stevens said in court. "I need to know the context of [Wiley's] conversations with each of these persons. Each one of those persons is a prosecution witness." Kenny requested a written argument from Moran due March 25, and scheduled a hearing for March 29. "I think I need you to brief this issue as to how, in effect, law students become attorneys for the duration of the entire trial," he said.
Scott Burns, executive director of the National District Attorneys Association, says the students' research raises interesting questions that could affect how far any confidentiality privilege extends. "Are they detectives? Are they investigators? Are they now inserting themselves into the criminal justice system, which is fine, but not necessarily as defense attorneys?" Burns asks. Roles other than as defense attorneys could make them prosecution witnesses, he says.
We will be following this story. Hope to see more questioning going on. Why after all these years and a couple of interviews by law students and journalists are witnesses recanting? Whats the real story? The students and the journalists should come clean. Once again - we've said it before - if there is nothing to hide, than there is nothing to worry about - or is there......
As previously reported, lawyers for McKinney sought to distance themselves from the students who allegedly used improper influence - paying and flirting - over witnesses to get them to give statements that would exonerate McKinney.
According to news reports, A judge today accepted a request from a man convicted of a 1978 murder to drop much of the controversial evidence pointing to his innocence that was dug up by Northwestern University journalism students. Judge Diane Gordon Cannon agreed to drop the evidence from a motion for a new trial filed by Anthony McKinney. She asked that McKinney sign an affidavit stating he understood the consequences, explaining that he is being treated in a psychiatric ward....The judge in the case has not yet ruled on the subpoena, but Karen Daniel, McKinney's lawyer, has said the more important issue at hand is whether her client was wrongfully convicted. Daniel said she believed dropping much of the questioned evidence would render moot the subpoena, but prosecutors have disagreed. They say all the evidence being used in the battle to get McKinney a new trial was part of the Medill Innocence Project's investigation.
We agree - the entire investigation is at issue. What is Northwestern trying to hide?
WNUR News - Northwestern University's student-run radio will be airing an open discussion tonight to address the allegations being made against the Medill Innocence Project.
As previously posted, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office has subpoenaed the journalism students for all their documents related to the Anthony McKinney investigation. The States Attorney is also see king the student's course outline and grade information. The State has evidence that students paid witnesses in exchange for their testimony, The Students, presumably, deny these allegations.
The question tonight will be: Are the State's requests reasonable? Can the students legally hide behind a reporter's privilege? Should they be able to hide this information? Can students pick and choose what information they disclose to prosecutors? What are the implications of such actions? What does it say about the Medill Innocence Project? What's wrong with just putting all the cards on the table and seeking the truth?
A lot of questions.....tune in tonight to hear the panelists weigh in.
Kern County leaders have agreed to pay a man $5 million after he was wrongly sent to prison for 20 years. John Stoll was convicted in the 1980s on molestation charges that were eventually overturned. He was featured last year in the documentary "Witch Hunt," which told the story of a string of child molestation cases during the '80s that sent 34 Bakersfield residents to prison.
Every conviction was ultimately overturned, including Stoll's, as witnesses recanted testimony and Kern County prosecutors were accused of using coercive techniques to get children to testify against their own parents.
John Stoll's settlement is $400,000 per year for each year he was in custody, far less than the $1M a year rate that plaintiff's lawyers are attempting to set. As recently addressed, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals explained that even $1M a year "approach[es] the outermost boundary of what might be thought conscionable" and is "at the outer edge of the universe of permissible awards."
Andrew M. Hale & Associates opened its doors in February 2008. The firm’s principal attorneys, Andrew M. Hale and Avi Kamionski, have significant experience in defending cities, municipalities, police officers and other governmental employees in civil rights lawsuits. Mr. Hale...More...
.jpeg)
