Hidden Agenda Fuels Challenge to Pivotal Death Penalty Case

[LegalScholar]

Hidden Agenda Fuels Challenge to Pivotal Death Penalty Case

by David Protess, Huffington Post

Anthony Porter, the exonerated death row inmate whose jubilant release from prison was the catalyst for abolishing the death penalty in Illinois, is back in the news after living in relative obscurity for years. A lot has happened since reporters covered Porter's first steps to freedom, but brace yourself for who's behind his sudden return to the front page.

Hint: it has less to do with the evidence than it does a reality TV show producer and a lawyer with ties to City Hall.

Our story traces to Sept. 1998, when Porter came within 50 hours of execution before getting a stay. Months later, he was freed when the case against him crumbled. Witnesses recanted and an eyewitness swore she saw her estranged husband, Alstory Simon, commit the double murder that had landed Porter on death row. Simon soon confessed on videotape to a private investigator working with a team I led at Northwestern University.

Besides the overwhelming proof of Simon's guilt -- the videotaped confession, his guilty plea to a judge, a tearful courtroom apology for the slayings, damning admissions to a Milwaukee TV reporter -- it was Simon's failure to appeal that forever closed his case.

And yet, as has been widely reported, lawyers James Sotos and Terry Ekl rant that Simon is actually innocent and Porter guilty. The lawyers convinced State's Attorney Anita Alvarez to take a third look at the case, arguably making the matter newsworthy...

For the rest of the story:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-protess/anthony-porter-not-made-f_b_4209180.html

[LegalScholar]

1. Also read Chicago Trib's Eric Zorn's column about the above blog

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2013/11/what-the-hale.html

[frazzled]

2. For those who won't read to the end

So let's get this straight. Andrew Hale makes millions at taxpayers' expense defending brutal cops and contesting lawsuits by exonerated prisoners. He invests some money in a TV project that challenges the most famous death row exoneration of our times. Now he and his partner hope to turn a profit at the expense of a man who barely escaped lethal injection and was exonerated by prosecutors, the presiding judge and the governor.

Yet somehow Anthony Porter's photo is on the front page rather than the mugs of Andrew Hale and his merry men. What's wrong with this picture?

[LegalScholar]

3. Thanks, Frazzled

Something left out of most reports on Anthony Porter is that he has a low IQ...

[LegalScholar]

4. Here's an excellent piece related to this story

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/11/05/the-innocence-crowd-and-the-guilt-crowd-argue-over-david-protesss-old-cases