Post-Dispatch Employee Among Group of Students Accused of Bribing Interviewees Calls Bull^&*%
By Kristen Hinman in Media, Post-Dispatches
Thursday, Nov. 12 2009 @ 3:50PM
But the new St. Louisan used to cover much meatier subjects, especially during his time spent in Northwestern University's Medill Innocence Project. And because of that Benn now finds himself right at the center of a pretty big news story about reporters' privileges.
The Medill Innocence Project, an investigative journalism program that dispatches students to examine potentially wrongful convictions, has a platinum reputation in the media business. Its work is the main reason that former Illinois governor George Ryan in 2000 ordered a moratorium on the state's death penalty.
But according to the Cook County State's Attorney's office, past Medill students paid people for interviews. Enter Benn.
| www.chicagotribune.com |
| Evan Benn, center, flanks his former Northwestern professor, David Protess, after a court hearing in Chicago on Tuesday. |
That interview took place just across the river, in Swansea, Illinois, back in 2004.
"I have to say, when we conducted this interview, five years ago, where Tony Drakes confessed his involvement and said Anthony McKinney had nothing to do with it, I thought it would be days or weeks before McKinney walked out of a prison a free man," Benn tells Daily RFT. "Five years later and it's come to this."



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