Anthony Porter

Anthony Porter (December 14, 1954 - July 25, 2021) was a Chicago resident known for having been exonerated in 1999 of the murder in 1982 of two teenagers on the South Side of the city. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1983, and served 17 years on death row. He was exonerated following introduction of new evidence by Northwestern University professors and students from the Medill School of Journalism as part of their investigation for the school's Innocence Project. Porter's appeals had been repeatedly rejected, including by the US Supreme Court, and he was once 50 hours away from execution.

Porter was exonerated after another suspect was identified and confessed, in a process since considered highly controversial. Alstory Simon, who was living in Chicago in the 1980s but had returned to Milwaukee, was identified in 1999 by the Medill Innocence Project as the perpetrator of the murders. Simon confessed to the crime on videotape. He pleaded guilty, was convicted in 1999, and sentenced to years in prison. But Simon later recanted his confession, saying that he had been duped and it had been coerced by private investigator Paul Ciolino, who posed as a city police officer while working with the Innocence Project. David Protess, one of two professors involved with the Innocence Project, was suspended by Northwestern University in 2011 as a result of the controversy. Two witnesses also recanted their statements.

After a yearlong investigation, the charges against Simon were vacated by the Cook County State's Attorney's office and he was freed in 2014, after having served 15 years in prison. The Chicago double-murder case is still unsolved.

Anthony Porter filed a civil suit against the city, but a jury trial in 2005 found in favor of the city, the original police investigation, and prosecution. Alstory Simon filed suit in 2015 against Northwestern University's Innocence Project, and was awarded an undisclosed settlement in June 2018.

Porter died on June 25, 2021, of a likely drug overdose. Provided by Wikipedia