Search Results - Porter, Anthony

Anthony Porter

Anthony Porter (December 14, 1954 – July 5, 2021) was a Chicago resident convicted and sentenced to death in 1983 for the murder of two teenagers on the South Side of the city. He served 17 years on death row before was exonerated in 1999 after new evidence was uncovererd by Northwestern University professors and students from the Medill School of Journalism as part of their investigation for the school's Innocence Project. Porter had already made multiple appeals that were rejected, including by the US Supreme Court, and he was once 50 hours away from execution when another suspect was identified and confessed, in a process now considered highly controversial.

In 1999 the Medill Innocence Project identified Alstory Simon as the perpetrator of the murders. Simon, who was living in Chicago in the 1980s but had since returned to Milwaukee, confessed to the crime on videotape. After pleading guilty, Simon was convicted in 1999, and sentenced to years in prison. Simon later recanted his confession, saying that the confession was coerced by private investigator Paul Ciolino, who posed as a city police officer while working with the Innocence Project. David Protess, one of two professors involved with the Innocence Project, was suspended by Northwestern University in 2011 as a result of the controversy. Two witnesses, one of whom was discovered to be a paid actor, also recanted their statements.

After a yearlong investigation, the charges against Simon were vacated by the Cook County State's Attorney's office and he was freed in 2014, after having served 15 years in prison. The Chicago double-murder case is still unsolved.

Anthony Porter filed a civil suit against the city, but a jury trial in 2005 found in favor of the city, the original police investigation, and prosecution. Alstory Simon filed suit in 2015 against Northwestern University's Innocence Project, and was awarded an undisclosed settlement in June 2018.

The 2014 documentary ''A Murder in the Park'' argued that Porter, who had been identified as the murderer by six eyewitnesses, was guilty, Alstory Simon was innocent and had been framed by Professor David Protess and his team from Northwestern University, who were more focused on undermining capital punishment in Illinois than learning the actual truth about the murders.

In 2011, Porter was sentenced to a year in jail for retail theft. He died of an opioid overdose on July 5, 2021. Provided by Wikipedia