Medill Innocence Project

Founded in 1999, the Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern University gives undergraduate students firsthand experience in investigating wrongful convictions under the tutelage of Professor David Protess, the Project's director.

Upon being freed from death row on February 5, 1999, Anthony Porter lifts Professor David Protess in an embrace as then-students Shawn Armbrust (back turned), Syandene Rhodes-Pitts and Tom McCann watch. Porter had come within 50 hours of execution before being exonerated with evidence developed by Protess and his reporting team.

Protess and his journalism students have uncovered evidence that freed 11 innocent men, five of them from death row. The Project's work, which has been featured on "60 Minutes," "48 Hours," "Dateline NBC" and the front pages of The New York Times and the Washington Post, has been cited for stimulating a national debate on the death penalty.

Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan credited the Project's investigations, particularly in freeing death row inmate Anthony Porter in 1999, with helping provide the impetus for his moratorium on the death penalty in January 2000 and his subsequent decision to grant clemency to all death row inmates before leaving office in January 2003.

One of the four prisoners whom the governor exonerated outright, Aaron Patterson, had been the subject of the Project's investigations since its inception. The exoneration came on the basis of new evidence of his innocence -- and the guilt of two other men in the crime for which Patterson was accused -- developed by Protess and his students.

"A system that depends on young journalism students is flawed," Ryan said in his speech granting the blanket clemency, during which he also praised Protess for being a teacher who has "poured his heart and soul" into helping his students free innocent men.

For breaking news, more biographical information, newspaper articles and video, please visit www.medillinnocenceproject.org.

To request help on a case, please fill out a contact form.

To inquire about giving opportunities, please contact the Medill dean's office at 847.491.3636.