Amateur Detective Work Leads to Freedom for Inmate on Death Row

Anthony Porter walked out of jail Friday, after 17 years on death row, and threw his arms around the journalism professor and students who had gathered evidence suggesting he was wrongly convicted of two murders.

“Oh, it feels marvelous to be outside. I’m free,” declared Porter, who came within two days of being executed in September before the Illinois Supreme Court stopped the execution amid questions about his mental fitness. Porter has an IQ of 51.

Since then, key witnesses have recanted their testimony and another man made a videotaped confession Wednesday to the shooting deaths of Jerry Hillard, 18, and Marilyn Green, 19.

Alstory Simon of Milwaukee made the admission under questioning by a private investigator who worked on the case with Northwestern University journalism students.

Circuit Judge Thomas Fitzgerald freed Porter on a $10,000 recognizance bond. He cited “news reports of significant evidentiary developments that would put into question whether Mr. Porter actually committed the crime that he was convicted of.”

Porter, 43, emerged from jail and embraced journalism professor David Protess, whose investigative reporting class gathered the evidence in Porter’s favor. Porter then clamped a bear hug on several students, lifting two of them joyously into the air as they stood in the jail’s driveway.

Stopping to talk with reporters, he said he isn’t bitter.

“I’m glad I’m free. I’m just glad I got out,” Porter said. But he added: “They waited too damn long. They had me locked up for 17 years for something I didn’t do.”

Porter remains charged with the two murders, pending further investigation. If Porter’s conviction is overturned, he would be the 10th death row inmate exonerated in Illinois since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977.

Prosecutors declined to say if they plan to charge Simon, whose attorney, Jack Rimland, would not disclose his client’s whereabouts.

The Supreme Court put Porter’s execution on hold Sept. 21, after his attorneys questioned his fitness. After the execution was postponed, the case began to unravel.

Eyewitness William Taylor recanted his testimony and told Northwestern students that police had pressured him into implicating Porter.

Two weeks ago, the students went to Milwaukee, armed with a list of names and addresses provided by an Illinois convict, and tracked down Simon’s former wife, who implicated Simon in the killings.

A Chicago private investigator, Paul Ciolino, then went to Simon’s home and videotaped his statement. Simon said he shot the man in self-defense and didn’t mean to hit the woman.

It was not the first time Protess and his students have investigated old murder cases. In June 1996, four men who had spent 18 years in prison for murder were released after students helped uncover new evidence.

After leaving the jail with attorney Daniel Sanders, Porter stopped at a McDonald’s restaurant before arriving at his mother’s home in a gritty and battered tenement next to an elevated train track.

“Daddy! Daddy!” squealed his 21-year-old daughter, Thelma, racing into his arms. “Glory be to God, Daddy!”

Porter hugged his mother, who cried softly, then turned to reporters.

“This is my mama, and I love her. This is Ms. Clara Porter,” he said, holding her tighter. “She had faith in me the whole time.”

Sitting on a sofa with his mother, near a hole in the ceiling patched with newspaper, Porter spoke matter-of-factly about his ordeal.

“I came this close to being executed, and that’s hard,” he said. “But I know that everything’s going to be all right, now that I’m home.”