For three years, undergraduate journalism students at the Medill Innocence Project uncovered overwhelming evidence indicating that a Chicago man who has been in prison for murder for 28 years is completely innocent of the crime.  Instead of focusing on Anthony McKinney’s innocence, the Cook County, IL. Prosecutor’s office has instead turned its attention on the student investigators, issuing subpoenas that include demands for the class syllabus and student grades.

Nine different teams of investigators worked on McKinney’s case from 2003 to 2006.  At the end of their investigation, the students concluded that the then-18-year-old resident of the Harvey area of Chicago could not have been involved in the 1978 murder of security guard Donald Lundahl. Among their findings was a confession from a man who was present when his cousin shot and killed Lundahl, confirming that McKinney was not there.  In addition, the students were able to prove McKinney’s alibi and disprove the statements of two eyewitnesses who now claim they only identified McKinney after being beaten by police officers and could not have been present to see the crime occur.

David Protess, the Director of the Medill Innocence Project, directed the McKinney case to attorneys at the Center for Wrongful Convictions.  Protess’ students have conducted investigations that have led to eleven exonerations and both MAIP Executive Director Shawn Armbrust and Program Assistant Daniel Satin previously worked for the Medill Innocence Project (though not on the McKinney case.)

In November, the Center for Wrongful Conviction attorneys filed a request for a new trial based on the evidence the students had uncovered.  In June, the prosecutors subpoenaed students’ investigative memos, internal e-mails and notes from witness interviews, along with their grades and class syllabi.  

Barry Scheck, Co-director of the Innocence Project, said he has never seen prosecutors demand student grades from any of the other members in the nearly two decade history of the Innocence Network

“Every time the government starts attacking the messenger as opposed to the message, it can have a chilling effect,” Scheck said.

Attorneys from Northwestern say that the subpoena breaks federal laws regarding privacy for students and for journalists.

"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."

While Protess and the attorneys involved continue to fight for McKinney’s freedom and the right of the students to maintain their privacy, MAIP hopes the prosecutors will focus on the overwhelming evidence of McKinney’s innocence instead of trying to question the intentions of the students involved.           

Click here to read more about the McKinney case.

Click here to read coverage of the Medill Innocence Project’s fight to maintain its privacy in the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times.