Spinning Against Innocence Projects

[LegalScholar]

Remarkable story of an orchestrated smear campaign against an Illinois innocence project and star witnesses to protect a potential suspect and government defendants...

The innocence crowd and the guilt crowd argue over David Protess's old cases

by Michael Miner, Chicago Reader

This week's column focuses on Curry's services to a prominent Paris, Illinois, businessman named Robert Morgan, who may have had absolutely nothing to do with a brutal double murder in Paris in 1986, but in the view of certain innocence industry cabalists deserved closer scrutiny than he ever got. Again Protess and his students got involved, and by 2005, when CBS's 48 Hours came to town, Randy Steidl, one of the two local men convicted of the murders, was out of prison and the other, Herb Whitlock, had a figurative foot out the cell door (though he wouldn't be sprung until 2008). Morgan retained Curry to defend his good name; and even then—a few years before the troubles that led to Medill's repudiating Protess, who resigned in 2011—Curry decided that invoking Protess was a good way to go. Already Alstory Simon's new attorneys were active on his behalf; so Curry wrote CBS a letter letting the network know that "a new and explosive post-conviction petition" had just been filed alleging "that Protess, his investigator, and an attorney, in effect 'framed' an innocent man in order to trigger the Porter exoneration." Curry reminded CBS that Protess had "pointed the finger at our client" in an earlier 48 Hours report on the Paris murders (in 2000, though Curry's letter said 2001), and if he were allowed to point it again and then the Porter petition turned out to be true, would you really want to have relied on this "discredited individual"?

CBS identified Morgan by name in 2005 despite Curry's efforts, and the petition he warned CBS against went nowhere. But Simon and his attorneys are still at it, and they've had better luck in round two.

Because of space limitations, my new column focuses on Curry...

Click here for the entire piece:

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2013/11/05/the-innocence-crowd-and-the-guilt-crowd-argue-over-david-protesss-old-cases

[LegalScholar]

1. Here is Miner's article which accompanied the above blog

What Really Happened in Paris, Illinois?

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/wrongful-convictions-reverse-spin-dan-curry-pr/Content?oid=11450982

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. kick.

[LegalScholar]

3. I found the CBS 48 Hours discussed above

This is remarkable. It's about 45 minutes long and there are some commercials.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3896645n

[LegalScholar]

4. More information I found on this guy...

Public Relations Gone Awry, Illinois Times

A well-financed plan to polish the public image of a wealthy businessman suspected of involvement in a notorious double homicide may have backfired this month when details of the scheme surfaced in a civil lawsuit...

http://illinoistimes.com/article-5214-public-relations-gone-awry.html

[LegalScholar]

5. These guys work for swiftboater Rick Reed?

What the...? These guys work for Rick Reed, the guy behind the smear tactics against John Kerry?

www.obamaandblago.com/about/?

[LegalScholar]

6. Shameless Self Bump