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Ill. prosecutors seek journalism students' grades

This Oct. 26, 2009, photo Northwestern University professor David Protess, founder of the Medill Innocence Project, talks with journalism students at a reporting strategy session in Evanston, Ill. Illinois prosecutors are seeking the grades and e-mails of journalism students who claim an innocent man is behind bars for murder, saying Protess and his students aren't journalists and therefore aren't protected by reporters' privilege: An argument the school considers chilling. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

ENLARGE PHOTO

In this Oct. 26, 2009 photo Northwestern University professor David Protess, founder of the Medill Innocence Project, talks with journalism students at a reporting strategy session in Evanston, Ill. Cook County prosecutors have outraged the university and the journalism community by issuing subpoenas for Protess' syllabus along with the grades and private e-mails of his students who spent three years investigating a convicted man they believe is innocent. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

ENLARGE PHOTO

In this Oct. 26, 2009 photo, Northwestern University professor David Protess, founder of the Medill Innocence Project, talks with journalism students at a reporting strategy session in Evanston, Ill. Illinois prosecutors are seeking the grades and e-mails of journalism students who claim an innocent man is behind bars for murder, saying Protess and his students aren't journalists and therefore aren't protected by reporters' privilege: An argument the school considers chilling. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

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By KAREN HAWKINS, The Associated Press 1:56 PM Sunday, November 8, 2009

CHICAGO — A Northwestern University professor and journalism students who spent three years trying to show the wrong man was convicted in the 1978 killing of a security guard may now have to defend themselves.

Cook County prosecutors have issued subpoenas to professor David Protess for his students' grades, his syllabus and their e-mails. Prosecutors claim the students may have been under pressure to prove the case to get a good grade.

Protess and his investigative reporting students have helped free 11 innocent men from prison, including death row, since 1996.

But Protess says in two other cases students found compelling evidence of prisoners' guilt and received As. He says students are rewarded for finding the truth, not getting convictions overturned.

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November 08, 2009 06:51 PM EST

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