For the past two years, student investigators at the Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern University have been fighting to prove the innocence of Willie T. Donald, a man wrongfully convicted of a murder and armed robbery as part of a 1992 crime spree in Gary, Indiana. The group of students, which included now Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project Development Associate Daniel Satin, may have found their big break when the victim of the armed robbery recently recanted her testimony that pointed Donald out as her assailant.

Rhonda Flemming, signed an affidavit last month claiming that it was not Donald that robbed her at gunpoint in her home on February 27, 1992. She also said that she told Lake County IN prosecutor Phillip Benson that she could not testify under oath against Donald.That statement is corroborated by Benson's own notes, recovered last month. Those statements were never turned over to Donald's trial attorney, making it a possible Brady violation.

Donald's next hearing is scheduled in October. Flemming's recantation will be a part of the newly discovered evidence gathered by the Medill Innocence Project and presented to a judge by Donald's attorney.

The Northwest Indiana Times recently published this detailed series on the Donald case, which includes video interviews including both Donald and Flemming.   http://nwitimes.com/app/multimedia/special/freedomfighter/