"Hidden Agenda Fuels Challenge to Pivotal Death Penalty Case," is David Protess' latest entry at Huffington Post. He's the President of the Chicago Innocence Project.
Anthony Porter, the exonerated death row inmate whose jubilant release from prison was the catalyst for abolishing the death penalty in Illinois, is back in the news after living in relative obscurity for years. A lot has happened since reporters covered Porter's first steps to freedom, but brace yourself for who's behind his sudden return to the front page.
Hint: it has less to do with the evidence than it does a reality TV show producer and a lawyer with ties to City Hall.
Our story traces to Sept. 1998, when Porter came within 50 hours of execution before getting a stay. Months later, he was freed when the case against him crumbled. Witnesses recanted and an eyewitness swore she saw her estranged husband, Alstory Simon, commit the double murder that had landed Porter on death row. Simon soon confessed on videotape to a private investigator working with a team I led at Northwestern University.
Besides the overwhelming proof of Simon's guilt -- the videotaped confession, his guilty plea to a judge, a tearful courtroom apology for the slayings, damning admissions to a Milwaukee TV reporter -- it was Simon's failure to appeal that forever closed his case.
And yet, as has been widely reported, lawyers James Sotos and Terry Ekl rant that Simon is actually innocent and Porter guilty. The lawyers convinced State's Attorney Anita Alvarez to take a third look at the case, arguably making the matter newsworthy.
On Friday, I challenged the lawyers' claims and chastised the Chicago Tribune for an editorial that gave them credence. I also pointed out the dubious pedigrees of Sotos and Ekl, showing them to be shills for law enforcement whose likely purpose was to undermine the innocence movement by gutting its symbol.
Still, I wondered whether there was more to this story, curious about why the allegations erupted now when they were originally raised seven years ago -- only to be shot down by every judge. Sure enough, a little digging shows that Porter has been dragged back into the spotlight for a more sinister reason. The motive is money.
More from David Protess on HuffPost, at the link.
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