http://la.indymedia.org/news/2011/06/246592.php
Wrongfully Banishing Professor David Protess
by Stephen Lendman Tuesday, Jun. 21, 2011 at 12:55 AM
lendmanstep...@sbcglobal.net
persecution
Wrongfully Banishing Professor David Protess - by Stephen Lendman
On March 18, Chicago Tribune writers Matthew Walberg and Dan Hinkel
headlined, "Northwestern at odds with star professor," saying:
"Cook County prosecutors sparked a media firestorm nearly two years
ago when they subpoenaed notes, recordings, and even grades of (his)
students (because of their work proving) Anthony McKinney had wrongly
been convicted of a 1978 murder."
The battle sparked a feud between Northwestern and Protess, whose
Medill Innocence Project uncovered numerous wrongful murder
convictions, culminating when former Illinois Gov. George Ryan
declared a moratorium on capital punishment in 2000 after 13
prisoners were found innocent and released.
On January 11, 2003, two days before leaving office, he then cleared
death row, commuting sentences for 163 men and four women to life
imprisonment. He also declared a moratorium on future executions, now
banned after Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation last March, saying
it's impossible "to create a perfect, mistake-free death penalty system."
Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism's Protess, also
Medill Innocence Project Director, was "a superstar (investigative)
professor, leading teams of students (to uncover 13) wrongful death
penalty convictions....One was just hours from execution."
Medill Dean John Lavine, however, suspended him by email, with no
further comment about his future. In fact, he was effectively fired,
Lavine privately suggesting he wouldn't be welcomed back.
It was a textbook case of academic lynching, affecting a
distinguished professor deserving high honors, not denigration and banishment.
Northwestern's statement said in part:
"There have been recent media reports regarding the conduct of David
Protess (and his) Medill Innocence Project....Northwestern has been
conducting its own review of (his) actions and practices....It served
as the basis for Northwestern's response to subpoenas issued by the
Cook County State's Attorney's office." Despite his laudable work,
his "Innocence Project (goal) would not justify any improper
actions," despite no legitimate evidence proving any.
On March 18, The Daily Northwestern's Brian Rosenthal headlined,
"Updated: NU removes David Protess as professor of Investigative
Journalism in spring," saying:
His removal "leave(s) the future of the class unclear. In an
interview, Protess said he will continue to serve as director of the
Innocence Project, but he doesn't know if the project will continue
to be involved with the class...."
At the time, he also said he's "committed to continuing our
investigations in these cases. Innocent prisoners should not be
punished for the dean's decision....The innocent prisoners in jail
transcend anything going on at Northwestern. I'm not going to neglect
the cause."
In addition, he expressed disappointment "because last quarter's
class was the best group of students I've taught in years."
The eight undergraduates in his spring class petitioned Medill's
Senior Director of Undergraduate Education Michele Mitoun saying:
"If removing Protess is part of an effort by the University to
discipline him for defending the integrity of the Innocence Project
to which he and decades of students have given so much, please know
that you are not punishing Prof. Protess half as much as you are his
students, and the two men still sitting behind bars."
Dozens of alumni also petitioned Northwestern and Medill, saying:
"We are writing to request a public explanation of the facts
surrounding the apparent removal of Professor Protess. In particular,
we would like to know the reasons for (his) removal, and your
explanation of why this action was necessary and is in the best
interests of Medill and Northwestern."
Former students like Evan Benn, now a St. Louis Post-Dispatch
reporter called Protess' class "life-changing." Another, Maurice
Possley, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, said he was "incredibly
professional." Paul Ciolino added:
"If you look at this thing 30 to 40 years from now, Protess will be a
beloved figure that they'll be building statues about."
The Northwestern Faculty Senate passed a motion expressing "deep
concern" over the way Protess was treated.
Former Medill Dean (1989 - 1996), now Columbia University Journalism
Professor, Michael Janeway said he zealously pursued a cause, one
"you could not question."
On June 19, New York Times writers David Carr and John Schwartz
headlined, "A Watchdog Professor, Now Defending Himself," saying:
Renown Journalism Professor Protess "spent three decades fighting to
prove the innocence of others has been locked in a battle to do the
same for himself. It hasn't gone as well."
In fact, spurious practices he's accused of include deceptive
tactics, cooperating with defense lawyers (that "negates a
journalist's legal privilege to resist subpoenas"), "whether he
altered an email to cover up that cooperation," and giving his
students better grades for uncovering evidence that, in fact, was
their job to do in wrongful conviction cases.
In addition, his students are bogusly charged with allegedly paying
off a witness and misrepresenting themselves.
They and Protess vigorously deny all accusations, calling them a
malicious smear campaign by the Cook County state's attorney's
office. Dean Lavine became party to it by claiming, without
justification, that Protess "knowingly misrepresented the facts and
his actions," compromising his own character and academic freedom by saying so.
In mid-June, Protess "retired from Northwestern altogether (effective
August 31)," while continuing to run the Innocence Project, saying:
"I have spent three decades exposing wrongful convictions only to
find myself in the cross hairs of others who are wrongfully accusing me."
He also believes he's been criticized and denigrated for defending
his students and occasional lapses of memory, the latter, of course,
affecting everyone without facing accusations of wrongdoing.
On June 13, Protess said he's now President of the Chicago Innocence
Project, continuing his investigative work non-profit.
According to George Washington University Professor Mark Feldstein:
Protess "is in the hall of fame of investigative journalists in the
20th century. Using cheap (very willing) student labor, he has
targeted a very specific issue. That work has reopened cases, changed
laws, and saved lives."
Protess said Dean Lavine initially supported him, but now knows it
was a charade, saying:
It was "an attempt to seem as if he were fighting for the First
Amendment when, in fact, he was undermining the Innocence Project at
every turn," no doubt for an ulterior motive perhaps benefitting
himself at the expense of truth, justice and integrity.
On May 11, Daily Northwestern writer Brian Rosenthal headlined, "In
Focus: 'Dismantling of a legacy:' The rise and fall of David Protess," saying:
Barely a decade after founding the Medill Innocence Project, he's now
"barred from teaching his trademark class, publicly vilified by his
dean," and forced to "take a 'leave of absence' that few
realistically think will ever end." He's also "reportedly (barred
from) enter(ing) the building."
Medill Professor Michele Weldon said:
"I think everything about the situation is tragic. It is tragic for
David, the students, the faculty, the schools, the alums, all the
people who are affected by the Innocence Project and individuals who
hope to be recipients of the work" it performs.
As a result, he made enemies in high places, especially state and
local prosecutors, unhappy to have their wrongful convictions exposed
and overturned.
In fact, they're a national cancer, mostly affecting innocent Blacks
and Latinos, wrongfully sentenced to death and murdered by
authorities who know it and don't care. Others are imprisoned for
life when officials won't admit errors and release them because
America's corrupted prison industrial complex thrives on adding
inmates, justice be damned to do it.
Author Michelle Alexander calls it "The New Jim Crow" in her book by
that title, calling mass incarceration a modern-day caste system
created by elitist racists who embrace colorblindness. As a result,
imprisonment became a politically charged social control instrument,
unrelated to crime.
Exposing it by combining investigative journalism and advocacy for
justice earned Protess the distinction he deserves. Denigrating him
is contemptible and shameless. It also taints Northwestern, Medill
and Dean Lavine for compromising inviolable academic and speech freedoms.
The Innocence Project (IC)
Full information on it can be found through the following link, now
continued by Protess' Chicago Innocence Project (CIP):
http://www.medillinnocenceproject.org/
Founded in 1999, IC's mission statement says it "engages
undergraduate journalism students....in investigative reporting of
miscarriages of justice, with priority given to murder cases that
resulted in sentences of death or life without parole. Our goal is to
expose wrongdoing in the criminal justice system."
Until his wrongful banishment, Protess helped free innocent
prisoners, saved from lethal injections or other ways to murder them.
He'll now continue that heroic mission as President of his newly
opened Chicago Innocence Project, an initiative vitally important to
continue, especially by someone of his distinction and commitment.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstep...@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to
cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive
Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US
Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are
archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/ .
sjlendman.blogspot.com
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