Man Whose Case Helped End Death Penalty In Illinois Dies
CHICAGO — A former Illinois death row inmate whose exoneration became an incentive to end the death penalty in Illinois has died. Attorney Jim Montgomery says Anthony Porter died this week at age 66. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said Porter died from “anoxic brain injury, probable opioid toxicity,” and ruled the death an […]
After 18 Exonerations, John Hanlon To Retire From Illinois Innocence Project
SPRINGFIELD — When John Hanlon started his career as a lawyer in 1983, he knew of only one case where an innocent person had been cleared of a crime: Sam Shepphard, the Ohio physician exonerated in 1966 of killing his wife. https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s402/audio/2021/06/innocenceproj-si-61621.mp3 Listen to this story here. “When we got a case to work, it […]
Book Explores Former Gov. George Ryan’s Reasons For Halting Death Penalty
As an Illinois legislator, George Ryan believed the state’s death penalty was an effective means of deterring crime and punishing those convicted of the most heinous wrongdoing. On the day he was sworn in as governor in 1988, Ryan took note of a series of stories published in the Chicago Tribune detailing flaws in the […]