CONVICTIONQU top quote

"They waited too damn long. They had me locked up for 17 years for something I didn't do."

-- Anthony Porter, murder conviction questioned

Journalism class' evidence suggests man wrongly convicted of murders The Associated Press CHICAGO -- Anthony Porter walked out of jail Friday after 17 years on death row and threw his arms around the journalism professor and students who gathered evidence suggesting he was wrongly convicted of two murders. "Oh, it feels marvelous to be outside. I'm free," declared Porter, who came within two days of being executed in September before the Illinois Supreme Court stopped the execution amid questions about his mental fitness. Porter has an IQ of 51. Since then, key witnesses have recanted their testimony and another man made a videotape confession Wednesday to the shooting deaths of Jerry Hillard, 18, and Marilyn Green, 19. Alstory Simon, of Milwaukee, made the admission under questioning by a private investigator who worked on the case with Northwestern University journalism students. Circuit Judge Thomas Fitzgerald freed Porter on a $10,000 recognizance bond. He cited "news reports of significant evidentiary developments that would put into question whether Mr. Porter actually committed the crime that he was convicted of." Porter, 43, emerged from jail and embraced journalism professor David Protess, whose investigative reporting class gathered the evidence in his favor. Porter then clamped a bear hug around several students, lifting two of them joyously into the air as they stood in the jail's driveway. Stopping to talk with reporters, he said he wasn't bitter. "I'm glad I'm free. I'm just glad I got out," Porter said. But he added: "They waited too damn long. They had me locked up for 17 years for something I didn't do." Porter remains charged with the two murders, pending further investigation. If Porter's conviction is overturned, he would be the 10th death row inmate exonerated in Illinois since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977. Prosecutors declined to say if they plan to charge Simon, whose attorney, Jack Rimland, wouldn't disclose his client's whereabouts. The Supreme Court put Porter's execution on hold Sept. 21 after his attorneys questioned his fitness. After the execution was postponed, the case began to unravel. Eyewitness William Taylor recanted his testimony and told Northwestern students that police pressured him into implicating Porter. Two weeks ago, the students went to Milwaukee, armed with a list of names and addresses provided by an Illinois convict, and tracked down Simon's former wife, who implicated Simon in the killings. Chicago private investigator Paul Ciolino then went to Simon's home and videotaped his statement. Simon said he shot the man in self-defense and didn't mean to hit the woman. It wasn't the first time Protess and his students have investigated old murder cases. In June 1996, four men who had spent 18 years in prison for murder were released after students helped uncover new evidence.

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