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A Times EditorialWrongfully condemned
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 8, 1999 Northwestern University journalism professor David Protess and his class of student-sleuths have done it again. For a second time in three years, they've uncovered evidence that a longtime Illinois death row inmate may be innocent after all. As a project, the journalism class recently delved into the case of Anthony Porter, a former gang member on death row since 1983 for the murder of a young Chicago couple. Armed with old records -- and the suspicion of one victim's mother that Porter was innocent -- the students tracked down witnesses. They got the break they needed when a woman told them her estranged husband, not Porter, committed the murders. Confronted with his wife's videotaped account, the husband confessed. The discovery, enough to earn the students another A+ , has already earned Porter an official re-examination into his case. A Cook County criminal judge has rightly released Porter, pending a full review. Assuming the information is verified, prosecutors should lose no time doing what they did in 1996 when Protess' class unearthed new evidence exonerating four men convicted of rape and double murder: Set the wheels in motion to release Porter from prison for good and allow the man to reclaim what is left of his life. Death-penalty supporters may be tempted to dismiss Porter's wrongful conviction, if that's what it turns out to be, as an aberration. But that position is getting harder to maintain, especially here in Florida. Our state leads the nation in the number of inmates (18) released from death row after being convicted of crimes they didn't commit, according to the Times. Unfortunately, the record has not slowed lawmakers' efforts to find ways to expand the death penalty and undercut defendants' right of review. The No. 2 state, Illinois, seems more troubled by its dubious distinction. Last November, Chicago's Northwestern University School of Law hosted a National Conference on Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty. It invited 74 people from around the country who had been sentenced to die, only to be freed when the government later discovered it was wrong. That guest list should give Floridians pause. If that many inmates have been released over the years for something they didn't do, how many others have been sent to their deaths before prosecutors -- or journalism students -- could catch the error?
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