Anthony Porter was just a couple of days away from being executed, until Northwestern University Professor David Protess and some of his journalism students presented evidence to the state that not only blocked that execution, but led to then-Governor George Ryan pardoning Porter. In turn, the Porter case directly led to George Ryan's decision to commute all Illinois death penalties to life-in-prison.
Last month, Anthony Porter's civil suit against the City of Chicago ended with a victory for the defendant.
Walter Jones, an attorney representing the city made this statement during the trial:
"The killer has been sitting in that room right there all day,"... pointing to the table where Porter sat.
Alstory Simon, the man who confessed to the murders Porter was originally convicted of, has now recanted.
He raises some interesting allegations.
From Paul Meincke's ABC 7 Chicago report:
Simon's confession meant freedom for Anthony Porter who was convicted and nearly executed for the Green-Hillard murders. His confession wasn't the only evidence against Simon. His estranged wife Inez Jackson Simon, after 17 years of silence, told private investigators and later a grand jury that her husband committed the murders.
Inez Simon's cousin Walter Jackson, who is in prison, signed a statement saying Simon told him years earlier that he had taken care of Jerry and Marilyn.
Case closed.
But in a recent interview taped for Simon's lawyers, Inez Jackson Simon, now suffering from years of drug and alcohol abuse, says she was not even in the park when the murders occurred.
Simon claims seven years ago she was coached and coaxed into fingering her husband with promises of money from future book and movie deals on the Anthony Porter story. Walter Jackson has now told Alstory Simon's lawyers that Simon never told him he was the killer.
But then what of his convincing confession given to a private investigator?
"He had me convinced this was my only way out. He had me convinced the police was coming to arrest me, and that they had enough evidence to put me on death row," Simon said.
Northwestern's Protess denies these new accounts of what occurred in the Green-Hillard murders.
However, I find it intriguing that an attorney in court made the statement that Anthony Porter was the real killer. This is a man with a lot to lose, not a jailhouse snitch
Technorati tags: David Protess Northwestern Anthony Porter Alstory Simon Chicago Capital Punishment Death Penalty
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