Scheduled for execution on March 24, Henry “Hank” Skinner had less than an hour to live when the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order to stay the execution.

Northwestern journalism students played a role in Skinner’s temporary reprieve.

Working through the Medill Innocence Project, which recently came under fire when the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office subpoenaed class records, students have been investigating the Texas-based Skinner case since 2000. Twelve students, including four current ones, have investigated the case over the years, said Prof. David Protess, who leads the class.

The group became actively reinvolved in the case six months ago, when Skinner’s execution date was set, he said.

Sentenced to death in 1995 for the murders of three people, Skinner was having his last meal when he received word the execution would be delayed so the court could decide whether to hear his case. His brush with execution was the closest yet of the death row inmates the Project has relieved, Protess said.

“Anthony Porter came within 50 hours of execution,” he said. “Forty-two minutes is really cutting it close.”

Protess said the first thing he did when he found out about the stay of execution was to e-mail current students and those who had worked on Skinner’s case. Though some were on break and as far away as Europe, they were sitting around their computers waiting for news, he said.

“They were all ecstatic,” Protess said. “How could you not be?”

Emily Probst, Medill ’00, said she took Protess’ class Spring Quarter her senior year and was one of two students chosen to interview Skinner.

“I always thought in the back of my mind, ‘His execution day will come,'” Probst said. “But I never had that day play out in my head.”

Probst, who now works as a producer for the investigative unit at CNN, said she was sitting at her desk waiting for a ruling on the day of Skinner’s execution.

“I was just waiting for that phone call and I hadn’t heard anything,” she said. “It was so bizarre to me.”

Within minutes after predicting Skinner would be executed, Probst said she received word of the stay of execution and e-mailed several contacts, including Protess.

Probst said the class taught her greater responsibility in telling the truth. She said she does not know the details of the ongoing legislation between the Innocence Project and Cook County State’s Attorney’s office but takes issue with aspects of the conflict.

“I do know that there was a question of what their grades were in the class, and to me that was laughable,” Probst said. “Nobody I know took it for a grade.”

After recent statements and a brief filed by the state claiming students acted as “criminal investigators and not as journalists,” it appears unlikely they will drop the subpoena, Protess said.

Protess said he doesn’t deny students developed relevant information for the case and the amended post-conviction petition filed by McKinney’s lawyers Feb. 10 still contains student-retrieved evidence.

“Our position is that we have a privilege not to disclose confidential information, whether or not it is relevant,” Protess said. “The state is claiming it’s relevant. Well, that doesn’t matter to us.”

Medill reporting was struck again when lawyers for Chicago police officers subpoenaed former Medill student Carolyn Nielsen, Medill ’95, for notes on an article she wrote for the Medill Monitor in 1995. Nielsen’s article raised doubts on the guilt of Thaddeus Jimenez, convicted as an adult at the age of 15 for the murder of his 19-year-old friend Eric Morro.

Nielsen originally wrote the article for class. She was not a part of the Innocence Project, which was not formed until 1999.

“There was no Medill Innocence Project,” Protess said. “But I was involved in publishing her first-rate story.”

Jimenez was exonerated in May 2009. According to Nielsen’s blog, she was told by Jimenez’s lawyers her article was part of the reason they chose to take on the case.Protess said the information found by Nielsen is irrelevant, and the state office agrees on Jimenez’s innocence.

Nielsen declined to comment.

The Innocence Project has had positive relationships with other counties, including prosecutors in Lake County, Ind., Protess said. In contrast, the group has faced two subpoenas in the past year in Cook County.

“It’s open season on Medill students,” he said.

The next court appearance regarding the Innocence Project is set for April 22.

“When they’re looking for justice, they have nothing to fear from the Medill Innocence Project,” Protess said. “We have a common interest in pursuing justice.”[email protected]