David  Protess

Professor and Director, The Medill Innocence Project

Charles Deering McCormick Professor, and Director and Founding Director, The Medill Innocence Project; investigative reporting has contributed to exoneration of 11 innocent men and women, five from death row; co-author, "Gone in the Night" and "A Promise of Justice"; former ABC News "Person of the Week"; winner of "Scales of Justice" award from Court TV, H. Councill Trenholm Memorial Award from National Education Association, and James McGuire Award from the American Civil Liberties Union, among others, for his work in investigating miscarriages of justice; former research director, Better Government Association; BA, Roosevelt University; MA, PhD, University of Chicago.

Career Highlights:
His career in journalism includes serving as Research Director of the Better Government Association and Contributing Editor of Chicago Lawyer magazine, where he began writing about miscarriages of justice in capital cases in the mid-1980s. Protess's articles about wrongful convictions also have been published in the Chicago Tribune, National Law Journal, Columbia Journalism Review, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He is the author of four books, including a textbook on the societal impact of investigative journalism and two award-winning books about wrongful convictions (co-authored with free-lance writer Rob Warden): Gone in the Night: The Dowaliby Family's Encounter with Murder and the Law (New York: Dell, 1993), and A Promise of Justice: The 18-Year Fight to Save Four Innocent Men.

The Innocence Project
In 1999, Protess established the Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern University, an educational program that involves journalism students in investigating miscarriages of justice. The following year, Protess became a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Innocence Network, a national consortium of over thirty journalism and law schools that addresses problems of the criminal justice system.

Protess's reporting has contributed to the exoneration of 11 innocent men. Since 1996, Protess and his students have developed evidence that freed five innocent prisoners from Death Row (Dennis Williams, Verneal Jimerson, Anthony Porter, Aaron Patterson and Gordon "Randy" Steidl), one of whom (Porter) had come within two days of execution. Illinois Governor George Ryan credited Protess's class for his decisions to impose a statewide moratorium on executions and to grant mass clemency to Death Row inmates. The United States Supreme Court cited his reporting of the Porter case in its recent decision (Atkins v. Virginia) declaring unconstitutional the execution of the mentally retarded.

Education

Protess received his doctoral degree in 1974 from the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration.

Phone

847-491-2065

Email

d-protess@northwestern.edu

Course Info

Investigative Journalism, The News Media and Capital Punishment, Legal Affairs Reporting and Law and Ethics of Journalism.

Awards / Professional Organizations

His work has been recognized by ABC Network News, who named him "Person of the Week," and by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who proclaimed a day in his honor. He also has received the Herb Block award by the Newspaper Guild/Communication Workers of America, the Scales of Justice award by Court TV, the Clarence Darrow Award by the Darrow Commemorative Committee, the Champion of Justice award by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the H. Councill Trenholm Memorial Award by the National Education Association, the Media Spotlight award by Amnesty International, the James McGuire award by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Truth in Action award by the World Detectives Association, and the Service to Prisoners award by the Southern Center for Human Rights.

In 2003, he received the Puffin/Nation Institute Prize for Creative Citizenship. He has been honored with numerous teaching awards, and in 1994 was named Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence.