In 1998, students in a journalism course taught by Northwestern University professor David Protess investigated the crime as part of a class assignment for the Medill Innocence Project. The students gathered evidence exposing serious flaws in the prosecution. A witness recanted, saying that Chicago police had ‘threatened, harassed and intimidated’ him into accusing Porter. Another student noted that the shot had been fired by a left-handed shooter; Porter was right-handed. Inez Jackson, the estranged wife of Alstory Simon, came forward and said that she had been with Simon when he killed Hilliard in retaliation for ‘skimming money from drug deals’. Four days later, Simon himself confessed to the crime on videotape. Protess and the students came forward with the information. Porter was released. Simon and his wife later recanted. In October 2014, Illinois State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez decided to release Simon, stating that David Protess, a former Northwestern University journalism professor whose students initially investigated the murders and private investigator Paul Ciolino had used coercive tactics that were ‘unacceptable by law enforcement standards’. Among the charges that Alvarez made was that Ciolino used an actor to falsely implicate Simon. She also criticized Simon’s attorney, Jack Rimland, who represented Simon at the suggestion of Ciolino.
