Fifteen former Medill Innocence Project students sent an open letter Sunday to several members of the Northwestern administration, urging them to “defend the courageous work” of the project and “relentlessly fight back” against Cook County prosecutors who have accused the students of illegal and inappropriate behavior.
Ari Berman (Medill ’04), a political writer for The Nation magazine, said he came up with the idea to write the letter and approached the other alumni, all former members of the Innocence Project team that investigated the case of Anthony McKinney, who was convicted of murder in 1981.
Earlier this week, Assistant State’s Attorney Celeste Stewart Stack accused the Innocence Project students of violating the law by secretly recording a conversation with a witness and potential alternative suspect in the case. Medill Prof. David Protess, a high-profile faculty member who runs the project, has said that although secret recordings are almost always illegal in Illinois, the recording by his students was legal due to an exemption in the law.
“I’ve been watching with dismay for some time now at how, first the prosecution was giving us and David a bad rap and now it seems that Northwestern has joined the prosecution in terms of making some of these arguments,” Berman said. “I said, listen, I’m not going to allow this smear campaign to go on without at least making my voice heard.”
The letter argues that prosecutors have repeatedly distorted the truth regarding the reporting of Innocence Project students in an attempt to undermine the credibility of the group, which has freed 11 wrongly convicted men. It also states that Northwestern has given up defending the project.
Berman said the student perspective has been lost in the media frenzy surrounding the case.
“Our voices have definitely been lost,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”
The full text of the letter is below:
November 21, 2010
Dear Provost Linzer,
We are writing as concerned graduates of Northwestern University, proud alums of David Protess’s Medill Innocence Project and members of Team McKinney. We have watched with increasing dismay as Northwestern has turned over hundreds of our private memos to the State’s Attorney’s Office and appears to be distancing itself from the Innocence Project. Since unveiling an unprecedented subpoena against David and his former students, prosecutors have consistently distorted our work, imputed false motives and sought to undermine the credibility of the Innocence Project. We expected Northwestern to relentlessly fight back against these falsehoods, defending a program that has literally saved lives and earned the university international acclaim.
Professor Protess’s class was a highlight of our time at Medill, and, for some, the primary reason they applied to Northwestern. Many Medill graduates who were lucky enough to take the class will tell you the same thing. David cares deeply about his students and the pursuit of justice. During his eighteen years investigating wrongful convictions, when he freed five wrongfully convicted prisoners from Death Row and six more from life sentences, no one raised questions about his methods or that of his students, nor were there any complaints about student safety. Getting to the bottom of terrible miscarriages of justice is difficult, painstaking, elaborate work but David made sure we were completely prepared for it and we have no doubt that he always had our best interests at heart. Safety was an utmost concern in the class and something we discussed often.
Now the prosecution is trying to call into question the ethics and legality of our reporting. They are attacking David and his students as a way to deflect from the real issue in this case: that an innocent man, Anthony McKinney, has spent nearly 35 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. The prosecution wants to talk about whether students improperly used a wire while interviewing a convicted murderer and not the fact that he confessed, on videotape, to his involvement in the murder of Donald Lundahl and said McKinney was not present. That is the type of deeply compelling evidence that is now being disregarded in this media fracas. The SAO would rather stall, delay and make baseless accusations than admit that the State of Illinois made a horrible mistake in the McKinney case and swiftly try to right a terrible wrong. They are out to destroy the Medill Innocence Project, so that no future McKinney cases come across their desk.
David and his former students are being attacked precisely because they’ve been so successful-and have uncovered such compelling evidence. Going forward, we strongly urge you and Northwestern University to defend the courageous work undertaken by the Medill Innocence Project, in this case and future ones.
We request that you reply to this letter, acknowledging receipt and addressing our concerns.
Sincerely,
Jen Aronoff, BSJ ‘04
Evan Benn, BSJ ‘04
Ari Berman, BSJ ’04
Kelley Hynds, BSJ ‘04
Hailee Lampert, BSJ ’04 & MSJ ’05
Sara Wells, BSJ ‘04
Kelly Nolan Cortesi BSJ ’05
Rachel Goldenberg Pikelny, BSJ ‘05
Mike Saccone, BSJ ‘05
Laura Brown, BSJ ‘06
Jacqueline Chmielnicki, BSJ ‘06
Sarah Forte, BSJ ’06
Zach Fridell, BSJ ‘06
Celina Montoya, BSJ ‘06
Sam Weiner, BA ‘06
Check back for more updates throughout the day and a full story in tomorrow’s newspaper.
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