Innocence Project evidence dismissed

Reporting from Chicago — An Illinois man who has spent more than 30 years in prison for a 1978 murder asked that much of the evidence pointing to his innocence be dismissed, and on Wednesday a judge agreed.

But Judge Diane Gordon Cannon asked that Anthony McKinney sign an affidavit stating that he understood the consequences.

The evidence that could free him was unearthed by Northwestern University journalism students on a project for the Medill Innocence Project. Prosecutors have subpoenaed the students, their professor, a private investigator working with the project, the grades students received for their research and their unpublished notes, among other things.

The students, led by professor David Protess of the Medill Innocence Project, uncovered evidence they say proves McKinney could not have killed Donald Lundahl on that night in 1978.

The evidence was included in McKinney’s petition for a new trial, but his attorney, Karen Daniel, sought to remove it because of the controversy it generated. She believes dismissing the evidence would make the subpoena moot, but prosecutors disagree.

Prosecutors have questioned the quality of the Medill investigation and accused students of improperly influencing witnesses by paying them and flirting with them. The Innocence Project denies that.

In court, Northwestern argued that the students and their instructors are journalists, so their material is protected. The judge has not ruled on the prosecutors’ subpoena.

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