All language subtitles for A.Murder.in.the.Park.2014.DVDRip.(1h-31m-20s)

Who shot Jerry and Marilyn?

Alstory Simon.

Did you know a man named
Anthony Porter or Tony Porter?

No, I don't.

Why didn't you tell the,
uh, investigator what you knew

about the killing of these people

given that he had told you
that an innocent man

was about to be executed?

Anthony Porter was
the trigger of all of this.

How does an innocent man
sit on death row

for 15 years and gets no relief?

Except for the students of journalism

at Northwestern University.

How the hell does that happen?

In America that happened.

Wasn't China, wasn't Korea.

It was in the greatest country
in the world, America.

If it hadn't been for the students

at Northwestern University,
he'd be dead and buried.

In 1983, Anthony Porter

was sentenced to death
for the murders of teenagers

Jerry Hillard and Marilyn Green

at the Washington Park swimming pool

on Chicago's South Side.

Anthony Porter's 1999 release

was the 10th death row exoneration

since capital punishment
was reinstated in 1977.

Allegations of police brutality

and coerced confessions
were now commonplace.

The "Chicago Tribune"
published a multi-part series

focusing on these botched convictions

malicious prosecutions and the lawsuits

and massive financial awards
that followed.

Nearly every phase
of the criminal justice system

now operated under a cloud of suspicion.

To free a wrongfully convicted man

who had spent 15 years behind bars

for a double homicide he did not commit

and was 48 hours
away from being executed

has got to be the great dream

of any reporter anywhere.

I don't know that you could contrive

a story more wonderful than that.

No, I'm frankly outraged that
the state was willing, ready

and able to execute an innocent man.

And if it had not been for
his attorneys getting a stay

on September 21st, my students and I

would not have had
the opportunity to free him.

David Protess
was a Northwestern University

journalism professor, author,

and leader of the school's
Innocence Project.

I had the opportunity
to take David Protess'

investigative journalism class.

And I ended up working
on the case of Anthony Porter.

Anthony had come
within 50 hours of execution

exactly a week before we started class.

He received a stay at the last minute.

But he didn't receive a stay because

anyone thought he was innocent.

He received a stay because
his IQ had been tested at 51

and there were questions about whether

he was competent to be executed.

We went and we reenacted the crime.

And we found out that
the eyewitness who said

he had seen Anthony Porter
committing the crime

couldn't have seen it at all.

That witness recanted his testimony.

And the case against Mr.
Porter began to fall apart.

The students teamed up
with a private investigator.

A fellow by the name of Paul Ciolino.

Then we tracked down
the ex-wife of the person

we thought was the real killer.

And she told us on video
that she had been there

when her husband committed the crime.

The betrayal led to a man

named Alstory Simon in Milwaukee.

A private investigator obtained
a videotape confession

from Simon that he and not Mr. Porter

had killed the couple in the
park in Chicago in 1982.

And Anthony was released on
the state's motion 2 days later.

I'm absolutely thrilled and ecstatic

that an innocent man
is gonna be walking to freedom.

And having played some role in that
just makes me feel exhilarated.

As far as the media was
concerned, they were heroes.

They spared the innocent guy from death

and it was a huge story
in Chicago and nationally.

On the issue of capital punishment.

One of the people is Anthony Porter.

He spent 16 years on death row

he was within 2 days of being executed.

In 1996, Protess freed
4 convicted murderers.

2 of them from death row.

In a case known as
"The Ford Heights Four."

People began to jokingly say
that my home telephone number

is on every prison cellblock
wall in America.

The Anthony Porter case
was pivotal moment

in the abolition of
the death penalty in Illinois.

It was the case that
widely reported to have moved

Governor Ryan from his being
on the fence

about the death penalty to being

actively very concerned
about its administration.

I'm commuting the sentence
of all death row inmates.

167 of them.

Everything that I have believed in

about the criminal justice system

was now coming into question

with the botched conviction
of Mr. Porter.

You can sort of draw
almost a direct line

from the shock
that Governor Ryan felt about

what almost happened to Anthony Porter

to the abolition of the death
penalty nearly a decade later.

My first reaction was, "Oh, my God!"

"Don't tell me we almost
put an innocent man to death."

It was the most emotional time
in my life.

I saw it on the news.

Governor Ryan was on there and he said

"Come on up here, little buddy"
and it was Anthony Porter.

And then the governor
was explaining the fine work

of this journalism class
and I was amazed.

I was confused and actually
I got depressed over it.

What did I do wrong?

I prided myself in conducting

good investigations.

It... it just blew me away.

Richard Devine was the state's attorney

of Cook County, Illinois.

Once again

in the crosshairs of the media

and wrongful conviction movement

he ordered a grand jury investigation

into the 1982 murders.

We should get these
allegations in court.

Assistant State's Attorney Thomas Gainer

led the grand jury
investigation to find out

who really killed Jerry and Marilyn.

The state's attorney's office
took testimony

from witnesses who were
in the park at the time

of the shooting and also David Protess

his students and
investigator, Paul Ciolino.

After the conclusion
of the grand jury proceedings

Anthony Porter's conviction was vacated.

He was a free man.

Through the Northwestern
investigation, the guilty guy

Alstory Simon was put in
prison and the innocent guy

Anthony Porter was released.

There was one problem though,

Anthony Porter killed those 2 people.

It was one big lie.

The thing I remember about
Anthony Porter being released in 1999

was the hug picture.

It was enough to make my blood boil.

This case had a motive behind
it bigger than the crime.

They did it, they killed
the death penalty.

On the wrong case.

Anthony Porter's
going back to court today.

He's planning to file a suit against

8 Chicago police officers.

My reaction to the announcement
of that lawsuit was... I was livid.

I was furious. I was insulted.

I just couldn't believe
that it was happening.

When you get sued like that,
you have to go in

and list all your assets.

I can lose... everything
that I'd worked for, over what?

Porter's contention,
according to the lawsuit was

uh, that we manufactured the case.

They railroaded him.

This was the first time in
the 17 years since his arrest

that Porter said
he was tortured by police.

To be accused of being racist by
the lawsuit, that made me angry.

That ain't me.

We're professionals.

We didn't operate that way.

And I knew that he had
no business suing me

because I had not done anything wrong.

Nor had any of
the other police officers.

Northwestern had a real good PR machine

and they were churning out
a lot of different articles

a lot of different TV interviews

and I started listening to the facts.

What they were saying,
and I said wait a minute

this isn't the same case.

I said there's...
There's something going on.

But what's going on
is not what you see on TV.

Walter Jones was hired
to defend the city of Chicago

against Porter's civil suit.

When I got called by the mayor's office

and they said,
"Walter, we got a problem."

We've got a guy
who has been on death row

for over 16 years
and all of a sudden now

he's gotten a pardon of innocence

and the case has
turned into a huge mess.

But it's not a case that
we are prepared to fold on

because we have some police
officers who are adamant

that they never did anything wrong.

I knew that he had not
been wrongly accused.

I knew that he belonged in jail.

We got the right guy.

We got the right offender.

Jim Delorto and John Mazzola

are retired federal investigators

who took an interest in this case.

They now work for Alstory
Simon's legal team.

My partner Jim Delorto and I went to

Danville Correctional Center
to interview Alstory Simon

to find out if he could enlighten us

as to what happened and why
he confessed to this crime.

So we went down there,
hoping to learn something

and we were astonished
by what he told us.

In July 2001, without help
from an attorney

Alstory Simon filed
a post conviction petition

claiming that he was innocent.

And that his confession was coerced.

I never murdered anybody.

I didn't have no involvement
in Marilyn Green's

and Jerry Hillard's death.

New allegations of misconduct
in the Porter-Simon cases

have been filed in a complaint

with the Illinois Supreme Court.

It alleges Alstory Simon's lawyer knew

he was innocent and that Porter

should have never
been released from prison.

Attorneys Jim Sotos and Terry Ekl

now represent Alstory Simon.

In my heart of hearts,
and I will go to my grave

believing that Anthony Porter
committed this murder.

And that Alstory Simon is 100% innocent.

I'm just tired of this stuff.
I know that I'm innocent

and these people just keep coming up

bringing this stuff up,
like, harassing me.

If we're gonna try this case,
we have to try this case

like it was a brand new case.

And we must show the jury
that he was guilty

beyond a reasonable doubt.

Because if we don't do that

that verdict is going to be $24 million.

People know that I'm innocent

everybody know
that I'm innocent, you know.

I'm innocent and this is what
happened to me.

Based on all the work that we had done,

there was no question in our mind that

we had gotten this right
from the very beginning.

And that Porter was responsible
for those killings.

August 15, 1982

in the very, very early hours of
August 15 after the conclusion of the,

uh, Bud Billiken Parade.

The community has a big parade
which ends at Washington Park

and it's a day of celebration
in the black community

with picnicking and games and...

There were thousands
of people in the park.

By 7 or 8 o'clock at night,

the neighborhood starts to quiet down.

Everybody's worn out.

They've been partying

since early in the day.

And we look forward to the night because

usually that night
was really quite calm.

The night Jerry and Marilyn got killed

I was 13 years old in 1982.

Ray Brown didn't come forward

with his story until 2006

because he heard Porter had already

been arrested for the crime.

William Taylor
was the state's star witness

against Porter at his 1983 trial.

Just a fun, warm night,
drinking, socializing

and... and it was extremely hot.

So I said,
"Well, let's all go to the pool."

On a hot night,
people got over the fences

or through the fences.

They swam, actually harmless fun.

They didn't have enough police
working that night

to chase them out and I don't think
we'd have chased them out anyway.

Jerry Hilliard and Marilyn
Green were 18 and 19 years old

sitting in the bleachers
of Washington Park

about 1:00 in the morning
enjoying the night.

First upon arrival,
I walked in through the gate

to get into the bleachers.

'Cause I seen Jerry and I seen his girl.

And I spoke to him in, like

"Little Ray,
your little bad self always."

"Now, what you fitting gonna do?"

You know, I'm like
"I'm fitting go swimming." You know.

I was at the wrong place
at the wrong time.

If I had kept my ass at home,
who knows how much better

or more... much more pleasant
my life would have been.

My partner Geraldine Perry and I were

violent crime detectives
and we heard the call of, uh,

2 people shot in Washington Park

in the bleachers just to
the west of the swimming pool

alongside of the field house.

And the police, when they
investigated the crime scene

they found a necklace on the
floor here of Marilyn Green.

And the police speculated that

a motive may have been robbery
and that she resisted

because she was shot through
her hand and into her neck.

After she got shot,
her boyfriend got shot.

He was shot twice in the head.

Marilyn Green, after getting
shot, was holding her neck.

She staggered down these steps.

She came out this north gate
towards the parking lot

right when Officer Anthony Liace

was pulling up in his squad car.

She was holding her neck

pointing towards the bleachers

and then she ran past Liace

and then Officer Billy Johnson
had a squad care there.

Marilynn Green was placed
in Officer Johnson's squad car

and rushed to the hospital.

Officers Liace and Anderson
ran south behind the bleachers

and saw a man fleeing the area.

They stopped and frisked the man.

Finding no weapon, they let him go.

My partner and I proceeded
up into the stands

where we saw a young man leaning back

against the back wall of the bleachers.

I told the 2 witnesses
to grab the victim's shoulders

and I grabbed his feet
and we walked him down

out of the stands.

He was in very serious condition.

We called for a wagon to transport him

to the hospital soon as possible.

The wagon took him off
to Billings Hospital

where he died later.

I found out later that the female victim

had died at Providence Hospital.

It was a loss.
I mean, she was so young.

And she had 2 kids.

Well, I love my sister, and I miss her.

And I wish it never happened.

I wish she was never up
up in Washington Park.

Detectives Dwyer and Perry
interviewed witnesses

Henry Williams and William Taylor.

And learned that Porter had
robbed Williams at gunpoint

before entering the bleachers
and sitting near the victims.

Henry told me this... this himself.

That Porter had came over by him

and stuck him up.

I came to work
at approximately 20 after 4.

My supervising sergeant
called me in and he said

"Chuck, you and Dennis are
gonna pick up the double

from Washington Park last night."

So we talked to the detectives,
we reviewed the reports

and then we talked to the witnesses.

One of the witnesses, William Taylor

he wanted to leave.

At that point, he was telling
us he saw the shooting

but he didn't know who the offender was.

But the robbery victim
said to us off to the side

"Listen, he's lying to you."

He actually did see the murder.

He knows who did it,
but he's really afraid.

Taylor admitted to detectives
Salvatore and Gray

that he did see Porter shoot the victims

but he was terrified
of Porter and his family.

A couple of the Porter brothers knew me

and that I was involved in this case.

I said, well, anything to keep any harm

from coming to my great grandmother.

Because I actually witnessed him mugging

2 seniors one day in front the building.

After Taylor ID'd Porter as the shooter

detectives called
Assistant State's Attorney

David Kerstein
from the Felony Review Unit.

It was Kerstein's job to ensure the case

had enough evidence for prosecution.

After talking to the 2 witnesses

I had a conversation
with the detectives involved.

And I said,
"I'm sorry, it's not enough for me."

So what I demanded that they do

is that we transport the witnesses

to the park to reenact the crime itself.

The 5 of us, we go to Washington Park.

You know, they were walking
us through, uh

what happened and where they
were at etcetera, etcetera.

Now, I made sure that they
were independent of each other

and the reason for it is I didn't want

one of the witnesses to
influence the other witness.

The first 2 witnesses to come in were

William Taylor and Henry Williams.

It was about 1:00 in the morning.

They decided to hop the fence in here.

Right behind me, they hopped the
fence in here to go swimming.

And they came over the fence,
took off some of their clothes

proceeded to the south part of the pool

and they jumped in the water
and went swimming.

Then, Williams decides he's had enough

and he comes out right
in this area where I'm at

and starts to put his cloths back on.

As he's doing that, he sees
a man approach him

and as that man gets closer he realizes

it's somebody he knows
from the neighborhood.

It's Tony Porter.

Tony Porter comes up to him and says

"Give me your money."

And Williams says,
"I don't have any money."

Porter then takes out a gun and puts it

right to Williams' head,
to his forehead.

Reaches in Williams' pocket,
pulls out $2 and says

"I'm giving you a break."

He doesn't shoot him and he walks away.

And Williams then said a few
minutes later when he looked

to the north end of the bleachers

he could see Porter up at the top

with the 2 victims.

And then a few minutes later,
Taylor comes out of the pool

and he starts to dry off
and he hears shots.

And he turns around to the
north side of the bleachers

where he hears the shots coming from.

Taylor says he sees Porter
at point blank range

pointing the gun at a male victim.

And he see's Porter fire the gun.

And the victim falls back.

Taylor then says he sees Porter
shoot the victim again.

After the shots are fired,
Porter runs down the stairs

right down this walkway from the north

towards me to the south.

I looked up and I saw him
running down the steps.

Right past me out the south gate.

Tony Porter.

At that point, I was somewhat satisfied

with what they had told me

matched their interview that
I had earlier at the station.

And we found out that the eyewitness

who said he had seen Anthony Porter

committing the crime
couldn't have seen it at all.

In 1999, the Northwestern
students conducted

a reenactment in Washington Park

and concluded that William Taylor

couldn't have seen Porter
commit the murders.

Because his view would have
been blocked by an iron fence

and obstructions in the bleachers.

And they all said it took
place at the very corner

of the bleachers.

I saw the crime photographs and I says

"Wait a minute, this is wrong."

They're wrong.

The students were not examining

the actual crime location.

And were unaware that the
obstructions they cited in 1999

weren't in the bleachers in 1982.

You can look from the pool
area up into the bleachers.

Unobstructed, even through
the fence you can see.

While Kerstein questioned
Taylor and Williams at the pool

a detective overheard 2 men talking

about seeing Porter kill the victims.

Their names were Kenneth Edwards

and Michael Woodfork.

And they asked if we saw

what happened last night
and Mike said yeah.

That's when they find out, that's
when they get to know the story

that, no, we saw what happened.

So then he started talking to him

and he started walking back
with him and he says

"You ain't gonna believe this."

He says, "They saw the shooting"

and they just ID'd Porter.

It was out of nowhere that
these 2 other witnesses

who had been previously undiscovered.

No one knew of them,
came forward to talk to us.

I am positive

that Anthony Porter killed those people.

I saw him with my own eyes.

With this new information,
detectives took Edwards

and Woodfork to the police
station for further interviews.

They also spoke with Mark
Senior and Eugene Beckwith.

Two witnesses who saw Porter in
the stands with the victims.

Like William and Taylor, those 4 guys

entered the pool area from the north

walked along that same walkway

and then when they got
to the point right here

where they were about to hop the fence

they looked up in the bleachers
and they saw 4 people.

3 men and 1 female.

And Edwards, Beckwith

and Senior would all tell the police

that one of the men up in
the bleachers was Tony Porter

and Tony Porter was somebody

they knew from the neighborhood.

And we walked past them and we were like

"What's up Tone? What's up Tone?"
you know.

'Cause he was the only one we knew

out of those 4 people.

Beckwith and Edwards
decide to go swimming

And they proceed to hop the fence

and come into the pool area.

And they jump in the water.

'Cause they're gonna use
the diving boards

at the south end of the pool.

They were on these diving boards

at the time of the shooting.

According to Beckwith,
he was on the high dive

and he noticed on the north
end of the bleachers

4 people, 3 men and a woman.

And he says Tony Porter

was absolutely one
of the person's in that group.

He saw a male stand up
and shoot somebody.

He's not sure if Porter

was actually the guy who fired the gun.

Edwards was the guy who had

already jumped off the diving board

and was standing
right about where I'm at

which is a raised area.

And from here

you can easily see over the fence

into the north part of the bleachers.

And he actually saw Porter

fire the gun that killed Jerry Hillard.

And all of a sudden
you just see pow, pow.

When I see that, I tell
Eugene to get down

'cause I don't want them to see
us up there seeing them.

I saw Porter.

I saw Tony Porter and I saw him do it.

So I wanna get down because
I don't want him to know

that that's us up there
because he knows us.

Edwards then exited
the pool area to the south

along with Beckwith.

We're not looking back.

We're just taking off.

So once I got off the diving
board and went in 9 feet

I swam up to get out
of the swimming pool.

And, uh, I see Anthony Porter.

Right there in the bleachers.

He shot 'em and killed 'em and he ran.

You know, leaving out the swimming pool.

Senior and Woodfork were

in the bleachers here
talking to a couple of girls

And when the shots were fired

they looked behind them

to the north and saw
the shots being fired.

Of the 4 people that were there

how many were men and
how many were women?

3 men, 1 woman.

Anthony Porter being one
of the men, is that right?

Correct.

None of those 3 people

was Alstory Simon, is that correct?

Not that I can recall, no.

And the Northwestern students

didn't even talk to those 4 witnesses.

"Did you interview any of those people?"

"No, we didn't because they all said

it was too dark to
see anything, I think."

"That's what I thought they said."

That's just completely false.

And for her to say that
is just mind boggling

to act like the people in the park

were inconsequential.

"Were you aware that
Kenneth Edwards identified

Anthony Porter as
the shooter that night?"

"No, I guess I didn't see that
part of the police report."

A 100% positive Anthony Porter did it.

I saw him.

"Mr. Edwards identified Anthony Porter

as the shooter that night, did he not?"

"I would have to go back
over the report."

"And your students didn't investigate

these 4 men, did they?"

"No."

"You didn't ask Paul Ciolino
to find those 4 men?"

"No."

"You didn't go out yourself
and look for those 4 men?"

Answered, "No."

Question, "None of your
group ever conducted

any interview of those 4 men."

Answer, "That's correct."

Would you expect
your students to interview

all people who claim
to have witnessed a crime

the underlying crime?

- No.
- Why not?

Because many of the times
they can't be found.

No one even attempted to find
any of these witnesses

David Protess admitted that
in his grand jury testimony.

We find other independent witness.

But the combination of all 4

speaking to me independently

added up to only one conclusion to me.

And that was Anthony Porter

was in some way involved in this case.

It was at that point I then felt

that a warrant for his
arrest should be made.

After the warrant was issued

Porter turned himself in

but denied involvement in the murders.

The state called 3 witnesses

at Porter's 1983 trial.

William Taylor, Henry Williams

and Officer Anthony Liace.

Officer Liace identified Anthony Porter

in court as the person he
stopped behind the bleachers.

Anthony Porter elected not to testify

at his criminal trial.

One of his friends did testify

that he and Porter
were drinking all night

at Porter's house and outside
in the playground

until the early hours of the morning.

It was a jury trial.

They came back and they found
him guilty of both homicides.

After the jury found Porter guilty

the death penalty phase began

and the state called 2 witnesses.

Earl Lewis testified

that a couple weeks before the murders

Anthony Porter walked by his
house, kicked his dog

Lewis objected, Porter pulled out a gun

and shot Lewis in the head.

Luckily, Lewis survived.

'Cause he was a bully.
He was...

He was a terrified man back then.

You say that name
back then, Anthony Porter

everybody ran.
He was feared.

Just a renegade all the way around.

Douglas McGhee testified that in 1979

Anthony Porter robbed him
and viciously beat him.

That robbery and beating
took place in Washington Park

in the very same bleachers
as the murders.

Judge Robert Sklodowski sentenced Porter

to death by lethal injection.

And likened Porter to a shark

that returns to the same feeding ground.

This was not a case where these people

had never seen Anthony Porter before

and were seeing some stranger.

They all knew who he was

from the neighborhood.

Anthony Porter did these murders

and he got the break of his life

when he got freed from the penitentiary.

The reason that my students
were able to do it

when the prosecutors did not

is because the police started
with the assumption

that Anthony Porter was guilty

and tried to build a case around him.

They railroaded him.

We started with no assumption at all.

We stared
with an objective view of this.

We didn't know whether
he was guilty or innocent.

Our goal was to search for the truth.

Anyone who would look at the evidence

and say that what Northwestern did in
this case was to search for the truth.

We're working for the truth.

That would be laughable.

This is an email that David Protess sent
to Paul Ciolino on November 5, 1998

before there had been any evidence
developed against Alstory Simon.

William Taylor hadn't said a word.

They had not talked to Walter Jackson.

They had not talked to Inez Jackson.

They hadn't talked to Alstory Simon.

And yet at the beginning

of November of 1998

David Protess sends

Paul Ciolino an email and says

"Now, it's your turn to find people."

"Here's what I have on the guy
we're almost certain was the killer

in the crime for which
Anthony Porter faces death."

Protess and his journalism students
met Porter and his attorney in prison

on two separate occasions
in December 1998.

I mean, th... this is
a journalist's dream.

To be in a jail with a prisoner

asking him all the vital questions.

Let's take Shawn Armbrust.

"What was it about that meeting that
convinced you he was innocent?"

"Well, the reason we were
going to meet him

was to ask him
if he committed the crime."

"But the first thing he said
was that he was innocent."

"And I've heard people say that before
but he was more convincing."

That sounds to me like Professor Protess

was teaching his students
advocacy, not journalism.

A grand juror asked another student

Syandene Rhodes.

"What would you say is the objective

of your assignment you were given?"

"I believe the objective would be
to find any evidence, interview

anyone you could that would
lead you to freeing this man."

So there you have an honest answer.

It wasn't about finding the truth

it was about freeing Anthony Porter.

It's interesting
after hearing all this evidence

a grand juror even asked

"Is it possible that you were just
a pawn in this whole process?"

The grand juror asks

"What is motivating the move
towards this direction

where there's a lot of evidence that
you've admitted that you've seen

but passed over blindly?"

And Syandene says,

"I know what I've been doing
for the past month and that is

investigating
Anthony Porter's innocence."

And the grand juror says,

"Or guilt. He may be guilty?"

So what he has essentially
done in the grand jury

there's no question about it.

He has certainly proven that it was

a meaningless investigation
by the students.

But more importantly

he's re-convicted Porter.

For the last 16 years
he's waited on death row.

Tonight, there's new information

that suggests he shouldn't be there.

Now, the man who helped put him there

the state's only witness
is changing his story.

One of the biggest fallacies

of this entire saga

is that Northwestern portrayed

the situation to be that

there was a single witness
who had identified

Anthony Porter who then recanted.

There were 6 witnesses
implicating Porter.

Northwestern talked to one.

Henry Williams was dead

and Northwestern totally ignored

the other four witnesses that
were in the park that night.

And it was based on that portrayal

that they were ultimately able to undo

Anthony Porter's conviction.

They stay on people

to try to finally get something

out of them that fits their theory

of who they think did the case.

Tom McCann, one
of the Northwestern students

was the first to contact Taylor.

I got a phone call from
a student named Tom McCann.

He wanted to talk
about the Tony Porter case.

I said, "Look, I'm through with this."

"I don't want to be bothered."

"Don't call here anymore."

And hung up.

McCann talked to William Taylor

and he prepared a memo.

In the memo, McCann says Taylor

told him, "There was
no doubt in his mind

that this man was guilty."

"He will not be happy until
Porter is finally executed."

"And before hanging up he told McCann

he didn't want to talk
about the case anymore."

That's all Paul Ciolino needed to hear.

Next thing I know

Ciolino and McCann

show up unannounced.

They're telling me, "Well, you know
this is all for the better good"

which I had no idea
what they're talking about.

And then they're trying to tell me

that in the end

I was wrong.

I don't know how that went down

but they had basically convinced me that

I didn't see him shoot anybody.

But I did see him run out of the park.

And I said, "Well, maybe
I did make a mistake,

but I don't think I did."

But I said, "Okay, if this is
the way they want to play this,

I'll, yeah, I'll play the game."

You know, just to get them
out of my hair.

Because then the cycle of

calling my job

upsetting my life again.

I wanted it done.

I wanted it over with.

And then what, 20...
almost 20 years later.

Again?

No by any means possible,
here I'll sign this.

And at that point

Ciolino writes an affidavit a statement.

I did not see Anthony Porter
shoot anyone.

I'm telling Tom he's just seen
something that's very, very rare.

And that's the only surviving eyewitness

in a murder case
retracting his testimony.

It was a big moment and it was
a critical moment for Anthony Porter.

The significance of this is
that William Taylor

is the state's star witness in the case
and the only eyewitness in a case

where there is no confession
and no physical evidence.

So his recantation,
the admission of his lie

indicates that there is now no
evidence against Anthony Porter.

So when you watch those clips

you come away with a perception

that the only witness
against Anthony Porter

has now recanted his testimony
and there's no case against him.

That couldn't have been further
from the truth.

Then the eyewitness recanted.

They call it recant and
what they get him to say is

"I was in the park, I never
saw Porter with a gun,

I didn't see Porter fire the shot."

And this is the journalism's professor

of one of the top, if not the top

journalism schools in the country.

Does an affidavit

that intentionally leaves out

the most important fact of all.

I saw Anthony Porter

run past, down the bleachers stairs

right past me out of the south gate.

That was something that William Taylor

told Northwestern

before they obtained his affidavit

and they just left it
out of the affidavit.

"But that was not included
in the affidavit

where he saw Anthony Porter
in the park that night, right?"

"Right."

They zeroed me out and spun me around.

It's trying to make people
think that's all the evidence

there was against Anthony Porter

was William Taylor and he recanted

therefore, it equals
Anthony Porter's innocence.

That's a croc of BS.

Anthony Porter,
I still think in my heart

is guilty.

This is the question from
state's attorney gainer.

"But, Tom, what did you
tell us your purpose was?"

"What were you doing this for?"

"To find the truth,
but I'm a college student."

"I mean, this took a long time."

"Let's go with that, you're a
college student, I understand that."

"Who told you to quit when you
got to the Taylor affidavit?"

"No one, we only had a very short time,

so we decided to look
at the alternate suspect."

The trail that the students would follow

began with the mother
of one of the murder victims.

Mrs. Green told police
that Marilyn and Jerry

left for the park that
day with Inez and Alstory.

Which everybody knew to be the case.

Inez and Marilyn were friends.

They, including Alstory Simon

were in the park
with thousands of other people

earlier in the day.

According to Inez's son

Sonny Jackson, his mother and Alstory

came home early around
7 o'clock in the evening.

The murders didn't take place

until after 1:00 in the morning.

A few weeks after the murders,
Simon and his family

moved to another Chicago neighborhood

because of gang attacks on their home.

Months later, they moved
to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

And they seized

on the name of a guy who's name

had surfaced at some point

but with no evidence and concluded

that they were almost certain
he was the real killer.

With Simon in their sights

David Protess and 2 female students

drove from Chicago
to Simon's home in Milwaukee.

Protess sits in the car

it's late at night.

The 2 students knock on the front door.

Alstory Simon invites them in

closes the door, says,
"How can I help you?"

They said that they were doing a...

A story and writing a book
on justice and unsolved murders.

And that my name popped up.

I asked them, "What do you
mean my name popped up?"

They asked me did Jerry Hillard

and Marilyn Green ring a bell?

I said, "Yeah, it ring a bell."

So what's that got to do with me?

I told them, you know, the truth

that I didn't know nothing
about their deaths.

The interview only lasted for

maybe like 5 or 10 minutes.

Then, after I escorted them out

Professor Protess got out of this SUV

and walked over to me

and then tells me

uh, he want to thank me
for talking to his students.

And give me a card
after introducing his-self.

Uh, when the students walks
across the street

Professor Protess, he tells me that

a man is getting ready
to die for something I did.

And I said, "Wha... what
do you mean something I did?"

"What are you talking about?"

And then he tells me, uh

we know that
you killed Jerry and Marilyn.

I said, "Man, I ain't
killed nobody, man."

"Whoever telling you that stuff
is sending you for a ride."

"You get the hell away from me and...
And don't come to my house no more."

And he left.

In 1999, Northwestern, at
the urging of Anthony Porter

contacted Walter Jackson,
Alstory Simon's nephew.

Jackson signed
an affidavit for Northwestern

stating that Alstory Simon had told him

that he had taken care
of Jerry and Marilyn.

It sounded pretty suspicious.

Why would this be something
he kept to himself for 17 years

and he just reveals
to students from Northwestern

but that's what he said.

6 years later Simon's lawyers
talk to Walter Jackson

and he told them a much different story.

And what we learned
was that Anthony Porter

had set this whole thing up from prison.

Anthony Porter and Walter Jackson

were incarcerated together.

Anthony Porter had saved
Walter Jackson from an attack.

He approached Walter Jackson

and he said, "Hey, can you help
me out with my case?"

"We're trying to pin this
on Alstory Simon

and you can help with that
and in return

this Northwestern professor
that I'm working with

can help get you out of prison."

"And we need your Aunt Inez
to help us with this too."

Walter Jackson admitted

that he lied about Simon's
involvement in the murders.

In late 1998, Jackson alleged

that David Protess contacted him

and told him that if he helped
free Anthony Porter

he would work to get him out of jail.

And that there would be money
waiting for him

when he got out.

So Walter Jackson agrees to do that.

He calls his Aunt Inez.

Alstory Simon's ex-wife, who

they had had a horrible relationship

and she was very bitter
at him because of that.

And Walter tells Inez that in return

for her helping pin
the murders on Alstory Simon

David Protess is not just gonna
get Walter out of prison

he's gonna get Inez's son

Sonny out of prison as well.

He said, "What do you expect me to do?"

And these guys are saying

they'll help me get out of prison.

I'll say whatever they want me to say.

So I made up all that stuff about Al.

Confessing to us and telling us that

and, uh, so it was all a story.

So it was actually hatched
by Anthony Porter from prison.

Then, we tracked down

the ex-wife of the person
we thought was the real killer.

And she told us on video,
that she had been

there when her husband
committed the crime.

David Protess and his students

took Inez Jackson to a restaurant.

They bought her groceries
and a space heater.

Later they went to
Shawn Armbrust's house

in suburban Milwaukee where Inez Jackson

gave a video taped statement

stating that Alstory Simon
killed Jerry and Marilyn.

And she gives, as a reason that

Jerry Hillard was a fellow gang member.

He was holding back on drug money.

Then, a fight ensued.
Then, he pulled out a gun.

Shot Hillard intentionally

and shot Marilyn Green accidentally.

You heard at least 2, right?

- Hmm.
- Okay.

There's 4 people
at that pool that night.

3 males, 1 female.

Not one single person said

2 males, 2 females.

Which would have been
Northwestern's theory that

Simon was there with Inez Jackson

at the time of the shooting.

There was only one female involved here

and that was the victim.

No one ever mentions me
the name of Alstory Simon.

We went to Milwaukee

to contact Inez Jackson.

We had a lot of tough questions for her.

She didn't know what time
the murders occurred.

And that them shooting didn't
take place till

between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning.

That there were only 2 shots fired
uh, one at... at each person.

Totally inconsistent with
what's in the police reports

that the victims were shot 5 times.

You heard 2 shots, right?

3.

- You heard 3 shots?
- Mayb...

It happened so fast.
I heard bang, bang, bang.

It might been another bang, It would...

Well, how many shots did you hear?

Really, maybe 3, maybe 4, I don't know.

You did not say in that
videotape statement

that you heard 3 or 4 shots, did you?

I said I heard

2 shots maybe 3.
He wrote down 2.

But in the videotape statement,
you didn't say...

I said I heard some shots.

You didn't say you heard 3 or
4 shots, did you?

You said you heard 2 shots.

I don't remember.

And she was gonna stick
with that story until

she found out that she was gonna die.

In 2005, Inez Jackson admitted

the whole Simon story was a lie.

And for at least
half an hour on that videotape

time and again she asserts 2 things.

1, she lied, and Alstory Simon

was not the trigger man that night.

The only reason why

she gave that information was
because she was mad at me

for walking out of the marriage

and she saw a chance to get back.

And the promises they had
made about her son

and to help her nephew get out of jail.

She had been promised all
kinds of favors from Protess.

Including money
in exchange for her testimony.

This wasn't the first time
a witness had made allegations

about money from movie and book deals.

Charles McCraney

the star witness in the Four
Heights Four case had made

similar allegations against
David Protess in that case.

That might have been hard
to believe if Protess hadn't

put these promises in writing.

It reads as follows.

"Stopped by to see you about
something important."

"Have information for you that
should be helpful financially."

Financially is underlined.

Then...

On Northwestern
University Evanston, Illinois

Medill School of Journalism stationery

he writes another letter.

"Dear Charlie," and I'm simply
reading a portion of this.

"I could go on and on,
but I think you get the point."

"I easily can write this book
based on your various statements

which frankly would make you look bad

or you could be courageous
by telling your real story

about what happened in this case."

"You don't have much longer to wait."

"I'm moving ahead with my investigation

and book, and the movie
is sure to follow."

Protess wrote a book called
"Gone In The Night",

and a CBS movie did follow.

It premiered a month before Protess

wrote the McCraney letters.

Mrs. Nathan?

- Yes.
- Hi, I'm David Protess.

I sent you a letter.

Charles McCraney told
private investigators

that David Protess

promised him $250,000
from movie and book deals.

And the way Protess describes
that encounter

in his own book is to say that

Protess introduced Ciolino

to the witness Charles
McCraney as Jerry Bruckheimer

a Hollywood producer,
and then Ciolino told McCraney

"If you're willing to tell your story

it could be worth something."

And McCraney said, "How about
start paying for my time?"

And Ciolino then pulled out
a gold money clip

peeled off 4 crisp 20s

and tossed them on the table.

But you did, for instance,
pay Charles McCraney

or Mr. Ciolino did, 80 or $100
to meet with him

at a Kentucky Fried Chicken, right?

As to the question pertaining to me

the answer is no, I did not.

Mr. Ciolino paid him
for his time, right?

Shocked the shit out of me
when it happened.

But he's part of your team, isn't he?

Right, but I don't control Paul Ciolino

the same way he doesn't control me.

Right, but if you were there,
you were there with him, right?

Objection.

So that seems to me
to be part of their MO.

They go to impoverished people
who don't have a lot of money

and make them promises

and basically get them to recant.

After she, uh, did that declaration, um

a month or 2 months later, she died.

There is no evidence today

because everybody's recanted
in this case.

The only evidence holding

Alstory Simon in prison

was his confession.

And a week later, her husband confessed

to private investigator
Paul Ciolino on video.

There was a time when

people believed that

innocent people
did not confess to crimes.

And I was among those people.

Everybody in our field now knows
that that's not the case.

The original "Innocence Project"
was formed in New York in 1992.

Its website lists the telltale
signs of a false confession.

If you take those factors
and apply them to this case

they're almost all present.

February '99

I had been sitting up about
3 days and nights smoking

rock cocaine and, um, the doorbell rang.

It kept ringing and ringing

you know, like somebody was in distress.

Alstory Simon was approached

at 6:30 in the morning after
he had spent the night

doing cocaine,
so he was clearly intoxicated.

When I opened the door

here's Paul Ciolino

and Arnold Reed.

They was armed with weapons

and had a video camera
and a tripod and badges.

They claimed to be police
investigators from Chicago

investigating a 1982 homicide.

And bogarted their way
on into the house.

The investigator in this case, as he was

in the Four Nights Four case

was Paul Ciolino, a private investigator

who works hand in glove
with Professor Protess.

And he just pushed me on, you
know, back up in the house.

Like police do when they coming
to make an arrest.

They pushed me and shoved me
into a corner part

of where the sofa was.

He stood over me

and Arnold Reed, he started
going from room to room.

I'm asking him, "What are you
walking all through my house for?"

"Wh... what are you looking for?"

So, Ciolino, he tells me, uh

"We know you did these murders."

"You're going down for these murders."

"And there's nothing you're
gonna be able to do about it."

I'm telling them, "Man, I don't know
nothing about no murders, man."

"What are you talking about?"

I said, "Man, just get out
of my house, man."

He said, "No, we're not going anywhere."

"You better look at the evidence."

"And I'm gonna show you this is
why we think you did it."

So he showed me affidavits
of some people.

He showed Alstory Simon the
statement that Walter Jackson

had made claiming that
Alstory Simon had admitted

the crime to him 17 years earlier.

Alstory Simon said, "That's ridiculous.
Get out of my house."

Ciolino then pulled out a video camera.

He popped this tape in.

Here's this Afro-American male person

up there on this tape claiming that

he was at Washington Park
and actually saw me shoot

and kill Marilyn Green
and Jerry Hillard.

And then, uh...

Alstory Simon did not know

that this African-American
making these allegations

on this videotape was an actor

hired by Ciolino

and scripted by Ciolino.

He tells me, uh,

"I want you to see something."

He goes to the TV

that I had on,
and he turns to a channel.

And there was this professor,
accusing me of murder.

It showed my ex-wife Inez
accusing me of murder

and being with me and
supposed to observed me

me shooting and killing these people.

I couldn't believe it.

At a certain point your story came on

and he watched,
and it confirmed everything

I had been telling him earlier
in our conversation.

And it just seemed at
that moment, he gave up.

I knew she had, uh,

turned bad, but... just completely.

I became fearful of my life though.

Then after, he says, uh,
"Look, Alstory, um,

we got all the evidence we need
to put you on death row."

"I'm gonna level with you."

"We're not police officers."

I said, "What?"

He said,
"No, we're not police officers."

We're investigators working
for the same person

that you just seen on the screen,
Professor Protess."

So I said, "Well, get the hell
out of my house."

They refused to leave.

And he said, "Look, all we
wanna do is stop this execution."

And then to create
the urgency they told him that

you only have a half hour
to help yourself.

If you don't say that you did
this crime in self-defense

in the next half hour,
the Chicago police

are gonna walk in here, arrest you

take you downtown,
and there's nothing anybody

can do to help you.
This is your only opportunity.

Then he tells me, uh,

if you... if I cooperate with him

he'll make sure that it was
a self-defense murder.

And when he said that,
he made me feel like he was

trying to give me a way out.

And he told me that, um,

I would be paid financially well off.

That I'd never have to work
again if I cooperated with them.

And I asked him, I said,
"Man, are you fucking serious?"

You know.
Excuse my language. Oh.

And he said, "Look, you can play
hardball all you want.

"But I'm telling you
you're going to death row

and there's nothing
you can do about it."

But I tell him that
I didn't murder anybody.

He puts his hand on his gun, you know,

and started easing it up.

Like this, and tells me that,

"Hey, we can do this the easy way

or we can do this the hard way."

You know, being souped up
on that drugs and alcohol...

And I was paranoid.

And I'm thinking, when he said
the easy way or the hard way

that he's gonna shoot me in
my head and make it look like

that he come to question
a... a murder suspect

and I maybe open fire on them,
and he had to kill me, you know,

and all this kind of stuff
was going through my head.

So again, I tell him
to get out of my house.

So I tried to get up

to get to the phone

to call Milwaukee authorities.

Arnold Reed, he blocked me
from using the phone.

You know, he put his hand on the phone

and pulled his gun out,
you know, literally.

So I sat back down.

Then, Ciolino, he tells me

if you cooperate with us,
we guarantee you that

you will come out of this
with millions of dollars.

That the money will come
from movies and book deals

and all of this kind of stuff.

That Professor Protess will pull
the necessary strings

to get you released
in a couple of years.

You only have to do a few years.

All we want is to stop this execution.

Now, I'm, uh, scared to death

after what I done saw on this TV screen.

I wanted the man out of my house so bad

and I asked him, I said, "Well,
what do you want me to do?"

So he picked up the papers
that he showed me.

He started writing stuff
on a piece of paper

and underlining different
stuff and then told me

I want you to say this on camera.

Ciolino basically used Walter
Jackson's affidavit

as a template for
Alstory Simon's confession.

So we rehearsed it.

Oh, man, for a long time.

Alright, that's 'cause
that's how out of it I was.

And then, uh, when he felt that I had it

down pack and sound convincing enough

we put it on camera.

His demeanor, I thought, was very, uh,

telling in that he was looking
at his shoes most of the time.

And, uh, he looked like he was prepped.

And while I was talking,
I had the paper, you know

right next to me on the cocktail table.

So if I forget something, you know

I could look at it, you know

and say what he wanted me to say.

And then he told me that
the only person who would see

that would be the prosecution.

This tape of Alstory Simon's confession

didn't go straight to the
prosecutors, it went to CBS.

It was aired on television.

Newscasters were calling
for Anthony Porter's release

without there being
any scrutiny of the confession.

Thomas Epach, then the head

of the Cook County State's
Attorney's criminal division

claims Simon's prosecution
has haunted him for years.

In 2013, he swore an affidavit

sharing some of the inside story.

"Less than 2 days after the video

"of the alleged confession
was broadcast by the media

"State's Attorney, Richard Devine

"made the decision to release
Mr. Porter from custody.

"At the time this decision was made

"no one from
the state's attorney's office

"had received a copy
of the original video

which purported to contain the
confession of Alstory Simon."

The state released
Porter without even having

the confession tape in their possession.

They basically just swung the
doors open for Anthony Porter.

With no scrutiny at all.

"In my years of
experience as a prosecutor

"it is my opinion
that it was highly unusual

"if not unprecedented,
to make a decision to release

"an individual convicted of murder

"based upon the broadcast of a video

"the reliability and authenticity

"of which had not been
thoroughly investigated

and established."

And when Ciolino was asked by the, uh,

Chicago media in 2006

to address Alstory Simon's allegations

this is what Ciolino's response was.

I don't have any rules.

The Supreme Court says I can
lie, cheat, do anything I can

to get them to say whatever
I got to get them to say.

The Chicago Police Department
is masters at it.

So is every other police department.

And at one point,
in a Chicago magazine article

he acknowledges that he

quote, bull-rushed
this client into confessing.

"We just bull-rushed him and
mentally he couldn't recover."

Ciolino acknowledges
that he used an actor.

He acknowledges
that he scripted the actor.

But he denies flatly
that he ever promised favors

or that he ever threatened him.

The turning point was when
Alstory Simon was confronted

with massive evidence of his guilt.

Uh, he was shown the
affidavits and the videotapes

uh, that proved that he was guilty.

I asked David Protess about this

fake videotape when I took his
deposition in another case.

It is a criticism of Paul Ciolino's

uh, method of using, I believe

a fake videotape in
an interview that he conducted.

I would never do that.

- You didn't know he was gonna do that?
- Nope.

In David Protess' grand jury
testimony, he testified

"I learned a day or two
before Mr. Ciolino interviewed

"Alstory Simon that he was thinking

about using this technique."

- You didn't know he was gonna do that?
- Nope.

Northwestern David Protess
would be the first people

screaming about the tactics
of the Chicago Police Department

in coercing confessions out of people.

But why in the world,
when that behavior is wrong

would Ciolino say
he can do whatever he wants

to get a confession out of somebody

and to get them to say
what he wants them to say.

And he has no rules
like police officers do.

When I heard what Alstory
Simon said there was no doubt

in my mind that Alstory
was telling the truth

because I had experienced

the same thing
first-hand with Paul Ciolino.

Michael Madonia
was involved in litigation

with one of Paul Ciolino's clients.

Paul Ciolino paid a visit

to Mr. Madonia at his home.

He started pounding
on the door of my house

and then after that
he was gonna push his way in.

I had to put my arm up to
stop him from entering my home.

He said that if I continued
to collect evidence

that there would be a good likelihood

that I would end up
with a bullet in my head.

Sometimes you can
be placed in a situation

and do something that
you really don't wanna do.

But compelled to do it for the
sake of saving your own life.

One expert outlines the factors

that lead to false confessions.

"What happened prior to the confession?"

"Are there Miranda issues?"

"Was the client clean and sober?"

"Was anybody other than sworn

law enforcement personnel involved?"

"Are there any issues of inappropriate

physical misconduct?"

That expert is
none other than Paul Ciolino.

I strongly believed and felt

that I wouldn't have had a chance

to sit on death row, no 5 years.

Not even no 5 months.

I believe they would've
killed me immediately.

And then the key is he told them

"And I'll get you a lawyer.
We'll take care of that."

Because the only way this was
gonna work is if they made sure

that Simon had a lawyer who wasn't

really gonna represent him.

He also told me that
they was gonna furnish me

with the best defense attorney
in the city of Chicago.

He went to my phone, he made a call.

He told me that Attorney Jack Rimland

would be representing me.

Then, they packed up and left.

Attorney Rimland came to
my house, introduced himself.

We sat down.
Gave me one of his cards.

He didn't appear to be concerned
about what had happened.

And I had told Rimland that

"Man, I didn't do these murders, man."

And then he told me that, well,
it didn't make no difference.

Because the evidence
was so strong against me

that if I rolled the dice
that I'm going to death row.

That was the extent of, uh, his visit.

Ciolino got the confession
and then handed him over

to his office mate
and his own personal attorney

to represent him and tell him
that he had to plead guilty.

That lawyer's job was
to scrutinize the confession

that Ciolino had taken
from Alstory Simon.

Now, how is a lawyer

who is close friends with

the person who took the confession

gonna scrutinize that confession?

The first thing he did
was to announce publicly

that he understood that if
Alstory Simon was charged

that he would be facing
the death penalty.

Which is almost exactly what
Paul Ciolino told Alstory Simon

to get him to confess
in the first place.

The only promise I made to him was

I would try and make sure he
did not get the death penalty.

Shortly after Simon confessed

he called his friend,
Reverend Robert Braun.

Braun and Simon had worked together

on many community projects.

I said, "Al, you gotta
tell me what went on," you know.

"What's going on?'

"What's this about a confession?"

And... and he says,
"My mind ain't right."

He's like, "I couldn't think."

And he said, "I said a lot of stuff

"and they're gonna get me
the electric chair, Bob."

I said, "No they won't."
Al says, "Yes, they will."

Simon told Braun that he
was innocent of the crime

but that Jack Rimland
advised him to plead guilty

as part of the deal.

He said, "Bob, I'm taking
care of this. Back off."

I said, "Al said that he's...
He's innocent of all this

"why are you telling him
to plead guilty?"

Rimland also told Braun that Simon

would only serve 2 years
in jail as part of the deal.

I says, I don't believe that.

Uh, I'm worried about
him pleading guilty

if it involves something
to do with murder.

And Bob told me
to get rid of this attorney.

That Rimland wasn't
doing nothing, you know,

far as exercising my rights.

And to get rid of him

and I should've listened
to him, you know.

He ordered me to stay away from Al.

He didn't want me near Al.

Rimland knew, at one point

that I was thinking
about going to trial.

And I told him, "Man, I've been
doing some thinking

since I was at
the police station, locked in."

And I'm going out here

I'm telling the judge every damn thing.

What they did to me and all this

and how it came about being up here.

Rimland clearly panics.

To further coerce
Simon into pleading guilty

Rimland told him that he was

a very strong suspect in another
murder up in Milwaukee.

And that he could get the death penalty

either in Milwaukee or in Chicago.

And I asked him, "Man, are you serious?

What... what are you talking about?"

And so soon as he left,
bam, there it was

the... the story popped up
on the TV screen.

Me being the mastermind
about this Milwaukee murder.

I was already kind of afraid
to go to trial in many respects

because I felt that if I did go to trial

I would get found guilty
because of all the publicity

that had been on the case.

There was no charges pending against Al.

The state's attorney in Milwaukee said

they don't have
anything on Alstory Simon.

He's not involved
in the case up in Milwaukee.

It was all a lie.

A ruse to get him
to confess to the Porter murder.

And then he tells me that there's

a plea deal on the table.

That if I'd plead guilty to 40 years

they would give me immunity
from prosecution from Milwaukee

and there will be no death
penalty and no life in prison.

At the sentencing hearing,
Simon stuck to the plan

and apologized to Offie Green,
the mother of Marilyn Green.

I made the apology
on the advice of counsel.

He said that it would
be more helpful to apologize

and that... that should make things

sound more convincing.

You know, if you believe it or not

that that was true,
when I'm reading through

all his documents, I find this letter

where Rimland actually
states that and the letter

advised Al that this reporter was gonna

come down and interview him
about the case.

It urges Al to remember to apologize

and show remorse towards the family

when she comes down there
and talks to you.

Which he did.

And doing those 3 to 4 weeks, I would

rehearse on what I was going to say.

Alstory turns around, telling
the victim's mother

that Marilyn,
unfortunately, got in the way

as he was wielding the gun
and accidentally shot her.

But that doesn't go with the facts.

Her daughter was shot 3 times.

So it wasn't an accident.

And he was standing within 2 feet of her

when he... when he fired those rounds.

So whoever killed her was

intentionally trying
to kill her and shot 3 times.

It was the most hardest
and mental painful thing

that I had to experience.

Knowing the fact that
I'm standing up here innocent

and I'm apologizing
to this girl's mother

when I had nothing to
do with her daughter's death.

At the conclusion of Simon's hearing

Assistant State's Attorney

Thomas Gainer presented the
facts of the case to the judge.

But misrepresented
the grand jury testimony

of almost every key witness.

Gainer tells the judge that
he would call 3 other witnesses.

Senior, Woodfork, and Beckwith.

What he doesn't
tell the judge that those

3 witnesses would
all implicate Anthony Porter.

And Rimland stood there
and never said a word.

And he makes no
mention of Kenneth Edwards

who's the most important witness of all.

Who actually said that he saw
Porter shoot the victims.

Witness after witness
after witness was brought in

to establish that Anthony Porter
committed this murder.

And then somewhere along
the line in the grand jury

it was obvious that
a decision had been made

that they were going
to embrace Porter's innocence

and go after Alstory Simon and in fact

embrace this alleged
confession to Ciolino.

Thomas Epach concluded that based on

the evidence against Porter, the
involvement of Paul Ciolino

in obtaining the purported confession

and the representation of
Simon by an attorney with ties

to Ciolino and Protess,
I believed that questions

remained about the guilt
of Simon and the innocence

of Porter that needed
to be fully investigated.

"I expressed these
concerns to Mr. Devine.

"Subsequently, I was told
that the decision to prosecute

"Alstory Simon had
been made by Mr. Devine."

Devine tells WBBM that's
not the way he remembers it.

If Mr. Epach had these, uh, issues

I don't recall him, uh,
ever raising them with me.

Maybe he raised them
with, uh, with other people.

Uh, that's possible, but, uh,

I don't recall
them being raised with me.

Devine said he
does believe Simon's claims

should be looked at and evaluated.

My view is that
the Cook County prosecutors

did not want to be on the receiving end

of any more negative publicity.

The Cook County state's
attorney's office

didn't want to
be embarrassed and go back

on what they had already set in
motion by reacting too quickly

so they made a political decision

to move forward with the
prosecution of Alstory Simon.

Richard Devine convened
grand jury number 363

in February of 1999 in which
witnesses against Porter

and the Northwestern team testified.

The grand jury was not asked to return

an indictment against Simon.

A month later, a second
grand jury was convened.

The second grand jury did not
hear from any of the witnesses

implicating Porter in the
murders, hearing only evidence

regarding Simon's confession

and Inez and Walter Jackson's
statements against Simon.

Based on that one-sided testimony

the second grand jury returned
an indictment against Simon.

I mean, it's an utter outrage.

It's justice upside down.

How does Jack Rimland plea him guilty

to 37 years in prison?

And you're not gonna investigate
the case and expose the case?

And remember when Simon was
got the sentence that he got,

most of us who were not
paying close enough attention

still thought, well,
that's an awfully good sentence.

I mean, Jack Rimland,
his attorney or whoever he is

must have done a great job
because Alstory Simon, you know

he's gonna be out in about 20 years.

Uh, committing a double murder for which

another guy was sentenced to die.

To suggest that he did his job

by sparing him from the death penalty

he didn't need any lawyer

to not face the death penalty.

And armed with
the circumstances surrounding

this confession along
with the grand jury testimony

of several witnesses
who placed Anthony Porter

at the scene of the murder
at the time it occurred.

A reasonably good
criminal defense lawyer would've

filed a motion to suppress immediately.

Rimland never told me that
he had a strong relationship

with Ciolino and Protess.

He never told me about he
shared office space with them.

He never told me that
they had a business relationship

and they was all friends.

Then, I find out
that while I'm going to trial

and he was my lawyer
at the time he presented awards

to the very same people
who got me in this.

Attorney Rimland gave an award

to David Protess and Paul Ciolino

for their efforts
in freeing Anthony Porter

and implicating Alstory Simon

while Rimland was still
representing Alstory Simon

before he had even plead to the charges.

And he was my lawyer at the time.

Soon after Simon
was sentenced, his lawyer

Jack Rimland sent a letter

concluding their business together.

That's when I begun to understand

that I had been bamboozled and played.

When Simon finally received
the grand jury transcripts

he realized that Rimland lied

about the strength
of evidence against him.

The grand jury investigation
had been secret

from the public
and Simon until this point.

I was so furious

because this man
had the thorough evidence

that proved my actual innocence.

So Alstory Simon filed a
pro se post-conviction petition.

When I say pro se, I mean
he's filing that on his own.

He wrote it himself.

He's not working with
a lawyer who is telling him

what theories to bring
or anything of that nature.

This is just on his own
sitting in a jail cell.

On July 3, 2001, Simon filed his appeal

with the circuit court.

On October 5th, Judge Evelyn Clay

dismissed the petition
without a hearing.

With the help of attorneys
Jim Sotos and Terry Ekl

a successive petition was filed.

But was also rejected by Judge Clay.

The Chicago media has not embraced

the story of Alstory Simon

being innocent and having been
framed by Northwestern to get

Anthony Porter out of jail
to create a poster boy

for the anti-death penalty movement.

And the reason,
I think is fairly simple.

I think they're vested in the
Anthony Porter is innocent story.

And I think they have a hard time

eating that right now and admitting

that they were played by David Protess.

Because Porter wasn't
originally pardoned

for the armed robbery of Henry Williams

his wrongful imprisonment only
totaled one and a half years.

This didn't entitle him to much

in automatic state compensation.

Cook County announced
that they were going to continue

to defend the conviction
of Anthony Porter

for the robbery of Henry Williams.

The Chicago media didn't like that.

"The Chicago Tribune" did an editorial

criticizing the decision

and the next day
the state's attorney's office

dropped those charges too.

The state's attorney's
office decision to keep

the armed robbery charges
in place demonstrated

that they believed that
Williams was telling the truth.

The problem with that is
if you do believe that,

well, then why would you disbelieve him

when he said he saw Porter
run up into the bleachers

where the murders occurred?

There'd be no reason to
distinguish one from the other.

And Porter has always
maintained from day one

that he was never even in the park.

After Anthony Porter
was released from prison

he brought a lawsuit
against the city of Chicago

and several Chicago police officers.

It was one of the most intensive

ventures that I have ever undertaken.

I said, the only way
we're going to do this

is we gotta take
this apart from the beginning.

I want every witness re-interviewed.

Because witnesses make great cases.

At the end of the civil trial

Anthony Porter's lawyers asked

the jury to award him $24 million.

The verdict came in.

Porter wouldn't receive a dime.

They awarded him nothing.

The jury rejected that
and returned a verdict

for the city of Chicago

and Chicago police officers

finding that they had probable cause

to arrest Anthony Porter
for the murders.

The key reasons that we won
were the police officers.

I still get emotional.

This case impacted
so many police officers.

So many police officers
who were wrongly accused

of having done the wrong thing

by somebody who had done
the wrong thing.

The reporters asked Walter Jones

how could this innocent man
have been denied compensation?

And Jones said, "The real killer
has been sitting in that room

right there all day."

A bunch of kids from
Northwestern University

who had taken this elective
course, a course on Journalism

and the teacher said why don't
you look into a couple of these.

The kids dug up
the information that was there

available to the police,
available to the prosecutors

available to the defense, they found it.

Ciolino says, "The students
don't investigate shit.

"What they do, which is
valuable, is drudge work.

"If anyone thinks they've been getting

"people out of jail, they've
smoked some good shit.

"When Hollywood gets hold of it

the students are going to look
like heroes and geniuses."

I really do not believe
these students had any element

of malevolence in their work,
I really don't.

David Protess
engineered the investigation

and Paul Ciolino
executed the investigation.

There is now no evidence
against Anthony Porter."

He's a master at manipulating things.

And he was great
at manipulating the press.

And what I find amazing
is that the journalists

would write these articles
about the police misconduct

and how the police
railroaded Anthony Porter

without even looking
at any of the evidence

and, you know, writing like
that destroys the reputations

and careers of officers who dedicated
their whole life to law enforcement.

I was ridiculed.

It kind of makes you wonder if you took

the right career once in a while

when someone's trying to rail road you

into a different
kind of person than you are.

How did it get twisted around?

How did, you know, it do a 180?

It makes me angry that a killer could be

walking out free
when they've killed someone.

Took someone life
and changed my life forever.

In 2011, Professor Protess was suspended

from teaching at Northwestern.

And leading the Innocence Project.

The state's attorney's office

asked for documents related to
the case of Anthony McKinney

who Protess was trying to free.

The University's attorneys
resigned after alleging

Protess made false statements

and altered an archived email message.

In an official statement
regarding Protess' suspension

the university wrote,
"In sum, Protess knowingly

"misrepresented the facts and
his actions to the University

"its attorneys and the dean of Medill

"on many documented occasions.

"He caused the University to
take on what turned out to be

"an unsupportable case
and unwittingly misrepresented

"the situation both to the
Court and to the State."

Protess has since formed
the Chicago Innocence Project

which isn't officially affiliated

with Northwestern University.

I think people like Protess believe

the ends justify the means.

That the death penalty is wrong

and whatever you have to do to
convince people it's wrong

is perfectly acceptable behavior.

I'm sitting here all these years

for something that I didn't do.

I missed out on, uh, bonding
with my... my, uh, my nephews

and I have a grandson
that, uh, I've never seen.

And believe me,
it is... it is mentally painful

to walk around everyday

locked up for something that you know

that you didn't do.

You've just gotta say

time out, do over, right?

Looking back, this does
not meet our standards, um

and the truth is that every defendant

from the most innocent
to the most guilty

deserves to have
an independent attorney.

Who has no ties
to anything else in the case.

Whose sole job is to do the best
they can for that client.

Had I known all these particular things

I wouldn't never let him represented me.

You gotta let him change his plea.

Get a new sentencing
hearing. Get a new trial.

That's what justice is all about.

And if it means
that people are embarrassed

well, it won't be the first time, right?

On October 22, 2013

the Cook County State's Attorney's
Office stunned Chicago by announcing

the Porter-Simon case would be reopened.

What would make
this right is my freedom.

Good afternoon.

This morning, my office
vacated charges of murder

and voluntary manslaughter
against Alstory Simon

in connection with the murders

of Jerry Hillard and Marilyn Green.

Justice compels that
I take action today.

This case has undoubtedly
been the most complicated

and the most challenging
re-investigation

that we have undertaken.

One of the most significant factors

that led me to today's decision

was the fact that the original

re-investigation into this case

was conducted by a former
journalism professor

a private investigator
employed by that professor

and a team of young journalism students.

Full name and number.

Alstory Simon.

8-7-0-8-1-7.

You're free to go.

- Good luck to you.
- Take care.

This investigation
by David Protess and his team

involved a series of alarming tactics

that were not only coercive

and absolutely unacceptable
by law enforcement standards.

They were potentially
in violation of Mr. Simon's

constitutionally protected rights.

Can you charge, uh, Mr. Ciolino

or Mr. Protess of anything?

No, I don't believe so because
any statute of limitation

on either obstruction of justice

or intimidation of
a witness is long gone.

I miss my family... and my mom.

She died while I was here.

In my view, the original confession

made by Alstory Simon

and the coercive tactics

that were employed
by Investigator Ciolino

have tainted this case from the outside

and brought into doubt the credibility
of many important factors.

At the end of the day, and in
the best interest of justice

we could reach no other conclusion

but that the investigation of this case

has been so deeply corroded

and corrupted that we can no longer

maintain the legitimacy
of his conviction.

What's next?

Um, whatever
the Lord has in store for me.

The bottom line
is that the investigation

conducted by Protess and
Private Investigator Ciolino

as well as the subsequent legal
representation of Mr. Simon

were so flawed that it is clear that

the constitutional rights of Mr. Simon

were not scrupulously
protected as our law requires.

This conviction,
therefore, cannot stand.

God is good, ain't he?

No, I'm not angry at the system.

I'm angry at the people
who did what they did to me.

And the situation
that they forced me into.

Did Porter get a certificate
of actual innocence?

Is it double jeopardy
that would preclude

if you were inclined
to go after him again?

He didn't... no, double
jeopardy is attached.

So Anthony Porter's not
looking at any other charges.

I couldn't even
if I wanted to indict him.

He actually received
a pardon from the governor.

Simon is at the Jacksonville
Correctional Center

down in Southern Illinois.

He's being picked up as we speak.

Will be brought back to the
Chicago land area later today.

Man, this is not...
I'm lost for words.

You know, but I... I feel great, man.

I've been working at it along
with Jim Sotos for 10 years.

And uh, it's just
an extraordinary feeling.

I just thank God, you know,
that, uh, he shined down on me.

Whoo!

Free at last! Free at last!

Wow!

And to think that he's
here now standing outside here

a free man is just
unbelievable that this journey

this... this, uh, you know,
is finally coming to an end, um

it's just an amazing story, um,
and it all just went down today.

Whoa!

It's all yours.

Can you bag that up,
so I can take it with me?

I can't eat that.

The food was delicious.

I'm so full that I can't even
breathe, I can only just blow.

That... that lobster, man,
when you were eating that lobster

it looked like you were in heaven.

I was savoring the moment.

Every, every, every flavor.

It's too big, man.

15 years and 8 months.

The world has changed.

And as a 64-year-old man

I have to adapt to it.

Now that I'm free...

What about justice for me?