RBP
10-30-2014, 11:49 PM
Chicago Tribune
OCTOBER 30, 2014, 11:55 AM
Rewriting a key chapter in Illinois' death penalty history, Cook County prosecutors Thursday threw out the double-murder conviction of Alstory Simon, whose videotaped confession unraveled one of the state's most pivotal wrongful convictions, parking reform and ultimately the end of capital punishment in Illinois.
At a brief hearing in Cook County Circuit Court, Judge Paul Biebel ordered Simon immediately released from prison after granting prosecutors' request to dismiss his conviction. Prosecutors did not say if they believed that Anthony Porter, who as freed from death row by Simon's confession, was guilty of the murders after all. Even if prosecutors did believe Porter was responsible, though, he could not be prosecuted because of double jeopardy protections. The result is that no one will ultimately be held accountable for the 1982 murders of Marilyn Green and Jerry Hillard on Chicago's South Side even though two men ended up serving lengthy prison terms for their killings.
Simon, 64, is scheduled to be released from the Jacksonville Correctional Center in Central Illinois later Thursday, while State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, whose Conviction Integrity Unit has been investigating the case for the last year, cheduled a news conference to explain how she came to her decision. Moments after the court hearing, one of Simons' attorneys, Terry Ekl, who said he couldn't sleep last night after learning prosecutors would drop the conviction, told reporters he still felt "numb" that a moment he once thought would never happen had finally come.
"The system did work to free an innocent man, but he should never have been there in the first place," said Ekl, who blasted Simon's lawyer at the time of his guilty plea as well as the Northwestern journalism professor whose students, working with a private investigator, obtained Simon's videotaped confession.
"I think they essentially framed Alstory Simon to get Anthony Porter out of jail so they had that poster boy (for the anti-death penalty movement), and that should never occur," he said. Ekl said he had not yet spoken to Simon but said "he's been in prison for 15 years for something he didn't do, so I think he's going to be extraordinarily relieved this morning."
The investigator, Paul Ciolino, issued a statement Thursday noting that Simon had confessed to a Milwaukee TV reporter and his own lawyer after confessing to him. "I believe Anthony Porter was innocent, but no one can deny the state fell far short of meeting the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt in securing a death sentence for him," Ciolino wrote. "But for the work we did together with David Protess and his students, Porter's life would have been taken."
Jack Rimland, Simon's attorney at the time of the guilty plea, said Simon repeatedly acknowledged that he had committed the murders before he pleaded guilty and continued to admit his guilt even after he began serving his prison sentence. "He consistently maintained that he shot the two people and never deviated from that once," he said. Alvarez's decision forever alters the narrative arc of Illinois' history with capital punishment. Shaken by Porter's coming within 48 hours of execution, then-Gov. George Ryan, a longtime supporter of the death penalty, halted executions less than a year after Porter was exonerated. Later, Ryan emptied death row, saying the state's capital punishment system simply could not be trusted. Ultimately, Porter's exoneration contributed to the momentum that led to the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois in 2011.
Rob Warden, the retired executive director of Northwestern University law school's Center on Wrongful Convictions, has credited Porter's exoneration as the "single most significant development" in the run-up to the abolition of the death penalty. "If it hadn't been for this case, I don't think George Ryan would have declared a moratorium," Warden said in a law journal article. "And if not for the moratorium, all that followed might not have happened — at least not on the timetable that it happened."
Alvarez's move to throw out the conviction came at the end of a yearlong re-examination of the controversial prosecution. The reinvestigation by Alvarez's office raised a frightening prospect that a sound conviction was improperly discredited, a guilty man was wrongly freed and an innocent man took his place in prison.
As part of the inquiry, prosecutors interviewed Simon twice. Both times, he said he was innocent. In calling for the reinvestigation, Simon's lawyers said no physical evidence linked Simon to the murder, that more evidence actually pointed to Porter as the killer and that then-State's Attorney Richard Devine had acted too hastily in freeing Porter in 1999 following Simon's confession. They also accused Ciolino, the private investigator, of coercing Simon's confession. Ciolino has denied wrongdoing but admitted that he showed Simon a video in which an actor posing as a witness implicated Simon as the gunman. In addition, Simon, who was scheduled to be released in 2017, alleged that Rimland pushed him to plead
guilty in spite of his innocence. But Porter's supporters noted that Simon's innocence claim depended on a streetwise criminal going to prison for a crime he did not commit on the promise that he would be financially rewarded at some point.
They also pointed to Simon's lengthy in-court apology to the victims' families and to his continued admissions of guilt even from prison. Rimland insisted he had represented Simon vigorously and pointed to Simon's relatively short 37-year prison sentence for murders that sent Porter to death row.
Critics also suggested the case allowed Alvarez an opportunity to undercut the work of David Protess, the Northwestern journalism professor whose students, working with Ciolino, unraveled the case. A few years ago, Alvarez tangled with Protess in another wrongful conviction case, drawing some criticism, though Protess eventually left Northwestern in a dispute with the university. One interesting aspect of Alvarez's decision is that in deciding to free Simon, Alvarez ultimately came to the conclusion that his videotaped confession, guilty plea and subsequent admissions were not credible.
As the state's attorney, Alvarez has given great weight to confessions, often refusing to throw out convictions because defendants had confessed even in the face of compelling evidence undercutting the confessions.
OCTOBER 30, 2014, 11:55 AM
Rewriting a key chapter in Illinois' death penalty history, Cook County prosecutors Thursday threw out the double-murder conviction of Alstory Simon, whose videotaped confession unraveled one of the state's most pivotal wrongful convictions, parking reform and ultimately the end of capital punishment in Illinois.
At a brief hearing in Cook County Circuit Court, Judge Paul Biebel ordered Simon immediately released from prison after granting prosecutors' request to dismiss his conviction. Prosecutors did not say if they believed that Anthony Porter, who as freed from death row by Simon's confession, was guilty of the murders after all. Even if prosecutors did believe Porter was responsible, though, he could not be prosecuted because of double jeopardy protections. The result is that no one will ultimately be held accountable for the 1982 murders of Marilyn Green and Jerry Hillard on Chicago's South Side even though two men ended up serving lengthy prison terms for their killings.
Simon, 64, is scheduled to be released from the Jacksonville Correctional Center in Central Illinois later Thursday, while State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, whose Conviction Integrity Unit has been investigating the case for the last year, cheduled a news conference to explain how she came to her decision. Moments after the court hearing, one of Simons' attorneys, Terry Ekl, who said he couldn't sleep last night after learning prosecutors would drop the conviction, told reporters he still felt "numb" that a moment he once thought would never happen had finally come.
"The system did work to free an innocent man, but he should never have been there in the first place," said Ekl, who blasted Simon's lawyer at the time of his guilty plea as well as the Northwestern journalism professor whose students, working with a private investigator, obtained Simon's videotaped confession.
"I think they essentially framed Alstory Simon to get Anthony Porter out of jail so they had that poster boy (for the anti-death penalty movement), and that should never occur," he said. Ekl said he had not yet spoken to Simon but said "he's been in prison for 15 years for something he didn't do, so I think he's going to be extraordinarily relieved this morning."
The investigator, Paul Ciolino, issued a statement Thursday noting that Simon had confessed to a Milwaukee TV reporter and his own lawyer after confessing to him. "I believe Anthony Porter was innocent, but no one can deny the state fell far short of meeting the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt in securing a death sentence for him," Ciolino wrote. "But for the work we did together with David Protess and his students, Porter's life would have been taken."
Jack Rimland, Simon's attorney at the time of the guilty plea, said Simon repeatedly acknowledged that he had committed the murders before he pleaded guilty and continued to admit his guilt even after he began serving his prison sentence. "He consistently maintained that he shot the two people and never deviated from that once," he said. Alvarez's decision forever alters the narrative arc of Illinois' history with capital punishment. Shaken by Porter's coming within 48 hours of execution, then-Gov. George Ryan, a longtime supporter of the death penalty, halted executions less than a year after Porter was exonerated. Later, Ryan emptied death row, saying the state's capital punishment system simply could not be trusted. Ultimately, Porter's exoneration contributed to the momentum that led to the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois in 2011.
Rob Warden, the retired executive director of Northwestern University law school's Center on Wrongful Convictions, has credited Porter's exoneration as the "single most significant development" in the run-up to the abolition of the death penalty. "If it hadn't been for this case, I don't think George Ryan would have declared a moratorium," Warden said in a law journal article. "And if not for the moratorium, all that followed might not have happened — at least not on the timetable that it happened."
Alvarez's move to throw out the conviction came at the end of a yearlong re-examination of the controversial prosecution. The reinvestigation by Alvarez's office raised a frightening prospect that a sound conviction was improperly discredited, a guilty man was wrongly freed and an innocent man took his place in prison.
As part of the inquiry, prosecutors interviewed Simon twice. Both times, he said he was innocent. In calling for the reinvestigation, Simon's lawyers said no physical evidence linked Simon to the murder, that more evidence actually pointed to Porter as the killer and that then-State's Attorney Richard Devine had acted too hastily in freeing Porter in 1999 following Simon's confession. They also accused Ciolino, the private investigator, of coercing Simon's confession. Ciolino has denied wrongdoing but admitted that he showed Simon a video in which an actor posing as a witness implicated Simon as the gunman. In addition, Simon, who was scheduled to be released in 2017, alleged that Rimland pushed him to plead
guilty in spite of his innocence. But Porter's supporters noted that Simon's innocence claim depended on a streetwise criminal going to prison for a crime he did not commit on the promise that he would be financially rewarded at some point.
They also pointed to Simon's lengthy in-court apology to the victims' families and to his continued admissions of guilt even from prison. Rimland insisted he had represented Simon vigorously and pointed to Simon's relatively short 37-year prison sentence for murders that sent Porter to death row.
Critics also suggested the case allowed Alvarez an opportunity to undercut the work of David Protess, the Northwestern journalism professor whose students, working with Ciolino, unraveled the case. A few years ago, Alvarez tangled with Protess in another wrongful conviction case, drawing some criticism, though Protess eventually left Northwestern in a dispute with the university. One interesting aspect of Alvarez's decision is that in deciding to free Simon, Alvarez ultimately came to the conclusion that his videotaped confession, guilty plea and subsequent admissions were not credible.
As the state's attorney, Alvarez has given great weight to confessions, often refusing to throw out convictions because defendants had confessed even in the face of compelling evidence undercutting the confessions.