A Cook County judge Wednesday ordered Northwestern University to turn over roughly 500 e-mails student journalists exchanged with former Medill Innocence Project head David Protess detailing their probe into whether the wrong man was put behind bars for a three-decade-old Harvey murder.
The students were working under the direction of attorneys at the university law school’s Center on Wrongful Convictions and were “acting as investigators in a criminal procedure,” Judge Diane Gordon Cannon said.
Northwestern had argued that the e-mails were protected under the Illinois Reporter’s Privilege Act and did not have to tender the materials to prosecutors.
Assistant State’s Attorney Celeste Stack said Wednesday’s ruling was a welcome relief after a “frustrating” two years of legal wrangling on the case.
Save for the e-mails, Northwestern has turned in materials from the students related to McKinney after the prosecutors filed a subpoena.
But Stack noted that the original notes, memos and transcripts students had compiled were destroyed.
“The only reason we got what we got was because [investigators] searched hard drives of the Innocence Project’s computers,” she said.
Prosecutors have questioned Northwestern journalism students’ tactics on the McKinney case, accusing them of, among other things, paying for an interview. Protess retired from Northwestern last month — just after announcing his plans to step down amid the accusations and questions about his truthfulness in dealing with university lawyers in connection with the criminal case.
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