Prosecution Says NU Students and PI Paid Witness for Exonerating Statement
A hard-fought court battle over evidence allegedly exonerating convicted murderer Anthony McKinney just got more contentious, as Illinois prosecutors who have been seeking video footage, notes and even grades of students involved in the Northwestern University Innocence Project case contended in a filing today that a witness was paid for an exculpatory statement.
The filing by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office alleges the students and a Northwestern private investigator working with them paid a cabdriver $60 to take a witness home, with the understanding that the approximately $40 left over after the fare was covered would go to the witness, reports the Chicago Tribune.
“This evidence shows that Tony Drakes gave his video statement upon the understanding that he would receive cash if he gave the answers that inculpated himself and that Drakes promptly used the money to purchase crack cocaine,” asserts the Cook County Circuit Court filing. In the recorded statement, Drakes allegedly implicates himself in the murder for which McKinney was convicted in 1982.
David Protess, a professor at NU’s Medill School of Journalism who serves as the project’s director, denies the claim that any student paid Drakes, the newspaper reports.
Northwestern student Evan Benn, who was named in the subpoena, told the Tribune that he—not the investigator—gave the cabdriver the money, and that he instructed the cabdriver to give none of it to Drakes.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Prosecutor Subpoenas Student Grades in Innocence Project Effort to Free Convict”
Updated Nov. 11 to reflect more recent Tribune coverage.
