For three years journalism students at Northwestern University have worked on investigating the case of Anthony McKinney, imprisoned for 31 years, as part of the university’s Medill Innocence Project. Through their investigation, the students have uncovered evidence that proves McKinney’s innocence in the murder of Donald Lundahl. As a response, the Cook County state’s attorney has ordered a subpoena of not only on-the-record witness interviews collected by the students, but also class grades, syllabus, student evalutations, off-the-record notes and recordings of witnesses, and even personal e-mails between the students and their professor, David Protess.

Donald Lundahl, a security guard, was shot in his vehicle on September 15, 1978. Later that same night, police saw McKinney running near the crime scene. McKinney told police he was running away from gang members, but was still taken in for questioning and ultimately convicted of the murder based on the testimony of a teenager from the area.

They tracked down the witness who originally fingered McKinney for police. He recanted his story in a videotaped interview, saying police beat him until he made up the details about McKinney’s involvement, according to the Web site.

The students also interviewed two admitted gang members said to have chased McKinney on the night of the murder; they corroborated his story.

“Angry that Anthony had recently damaged their car, they admitted pursuing him after a chance encounter,” Protess wrote on the Project’s Web site.

Seven others who were identified as witnesses told the students about a man who they said admitted years ago to the killing. The students tracked him down.

In a videotaped interview, the man said he was present during the murder and that McKinney was not there. The reputed witness identified two people he claimed were the real killers, according to the Innocence Project investigation.

Northwestern has turned over their on-the-record documents, audio, and video tapes but is challenging the need for the other materials.

“I don’t think it’s any of the state’s business to know the state of mind of my students,” Protess said. “Prosecutors should be more concerned with the wrongful conviction of Anthony McKinney than with my students’ grades.”

Likely, the prosecutors are not happy with the appearance of new evidence in the case and are doing what they can to undermine the entire project. By requesting the student’s grading criteria to be handed over they are implying that the students were given better grades if they uncovered helpful evidence, making it more likely they had motivation to fabricate evidence.

Prosecutors argue in court documents that they need the school information to make “an accurate assessment of witnesses’ credibility and other essential issues,” also saying that their own investigation uncovered credibility problems with the people interviewed by the students.

Because government investigations are regulated by strict ethical and disclosure guidelines, a full explanation of the school’s procedures is necessary to ensure justice, prosecutors said in court papers.

“Without full disclosure, the potential for great abuse will increase as private entities conduct their own investigations,” the court documents said.

Prosecutors also have asserted that the Medill students and their professor are not journalists and, therefore, not protected from revealing sources and turning over notes under the Illinois Reporter’s Privilege Act.

I did a search for the Reporter’s Privilege Act, which contained the following definitions:

(a) “reporter” means any person regularly engaged in the business of collecting, writing or editing news for publication through a news medium on a full-time or part-time basis; and includes any person who was a reporter at the time the information sought was procured or obtained.

(b) “news medium” means any newspaper or other periodical issued at regular intervals whether in print or electronic format and having a general circulation; a news service whether in print or electronic format; a radio station; a television station; a television network; a community antenna television service; and any person or corporation engaged in the making of news reels or other motion picture news for public showing.

By this definition, the Northwestern students could most certainly be classified as reporters. They collected, wrote, and edited the information which they then issued via their website, which periodically posts breaking news stories. I see no reason why the prosecutors would challenge them as “pretend” journalists other than to discredit the evidence they gathered and therefore not proving the prosecutors wrong.

To date, Protess and his students have aided in the exonerations of 11 innocent men. Anthony McKinney would be number 12 whom the students helped, and if freed would have one of the longest prison stays of the nation’s exonerees.

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