Journalism Professor and founding director of the Medill Innocence Project, Dr. David Protess has led a fascinating career. He is perhaps most noted for freeing inmates from death row using research that he and his undergraduate students have uncovered. Nevertheless, Protess remains a dedicated educator.The Northwestern Chronicle: CTEC says your students love your class, but they complain about the workload. What do you love best about your job, and why all the homework?
Professor David Protess: What I love best about my job is working with senior undergraduates. Their efforts inspire me. I don't consider what I give them homework. They're reporting assignments and oftentimes the hours they talk about in CTEC reflect their own initiative to go into communities and find the truth.
The class is based on experiential learning. So these aren't just assignments. Sometimes it takes a long time and many hours to uncover truth. As I read the CTECs, I don't see that as a complaint. That is a cautionary statement to students that if you want to take this class, you're going to have to work hard. But in the end it's worthwhile.
NC: Of all your books, awards, and occupations, which has been the most rewarding?
DP: I can't pick out any one thing that I think is the most important thing. They're all rewarding in their own special way. My biggest reward is to see students experience empowerment. Because first and foremost I'm an educator. And in any of these cases that I've worked on, these cases on death row, it's very satisfying to see an innocent person walk free.
It was thrilling to see a man walk back to his family after spending 18 months of a 45 year sentence behind bars. To see a family reunited as a result of our efforts gave me a very special sense of gratification. In the case of the Ford Heights Four, it was watching four men be reborn and free to lead new lives and make choices they hadn't had before. I didn't know whose house to go to first when they were freed [laugh]. That was incredibly special. At the time it was the worst miscarriage of justice in Illinois history. And then in Anthony Porter, of course, the experience of freeing a man who had come within ten days of his execution only to have him run into my arms and the arms of each of my students and lift us in the air - that was an incredibly inspiring moment. So each of these are extraordinarily gratifying.
But the lasting image really is the looks and expressions on the faces of my students, what they do with their sense of empowerment, and what they do in the real world outside of class. That's the legacy I would like to leave anyway.
NC: In April, Dennis Williams, one of the death row inmates you helped to free, passed away. Does his death still affect you?
DP: Dennis's passing is a deep personal tragedy both for me and my family. Yes, it does affect me to this day. A lot of the work I do since his death is really dedicated to his memory. We became very close to him. Well, I became very close to him. But my younger son, Ben, who is now a sophomore at Northwestern became extremely close to him. Dennis was like an honorary uncle to him. We miss him dearly.
NC: You have been quoted as saying that there is a bias against blacks in the justice system -
DP: When you say "me", you know, that's an established empirical fact.
NC: I know. I went and did some research after reading your comments and there is a disproportionate percentage of minorities on death row.
DP: Well, that's only one way to look at it. Although it's an important way to look at it, another way to look at it is who gets sentenced to death. African-Americans are anywhere from 1 to 10 times more likely to get sentenced to death for killing a Caucasian than Caucasians are for killing African-Americans. That's the real racial disparity.
NC: Since the introduction of DNA testing in courtrooms, do you believe miscarriages of justice, especially involving race, occur less often than they once did?
DP: Well, yeah. I mean DNA is a very important tool not only for exonerating the innocent but for implicating the guilty. If the justice system is going to work effectively it has to put the right people behind bars. And DNA has been a very powerful tool for allowing that to happen. There have been over 100 DNA exonerations in the last few years since it's become widespread. But I don't want to blow it out of proportion because the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of the cases don't involve DNA. An overwhelming majority. In fact, only one case that I've worked on of all the people we helped to free was a case that involved DNA, and it probably would've been proven anyway because of the confessions from the actual killers. So I'm not trying to minimize DNA. It's a very powerful tool. But the fact is in the vast majority of cases, DNA isn't available to bring justice to a particular case.
NC: So you're saying a vast majority of death row cases don't involve DNA?
DP: Oh certainly, because one of the few times that you'll find DNA is if there is a rape committed in addition to the homicide. Because the offender will rarely leave blood or bodily fluids such as sweat or saliva at the scene that would allow him to be linked to the crime for DNA testing. So essentially, if we're not talking about a rape, there's a minute fraction of cases where DNA can determine the outcome.
NC: Why do you believe capital punishment is fundamentally wrong?
DP: Well, I don't take a moral position. I'm an investigative journalist. My position is based on evidence. And the evidence is that in Illinois during the same period that we have put 13 people to death, we've exonerated 19. The national yearly rate is running 1 out of 7 cases. Meaning that for every 7 people we put to death, 1 is exonerated. That error rate in a matter with life and death stakes is intolerably high.
So to address the ideological aspect of your paper, I don't think it's a matter of being liberal or conservative. No rational person would want to see an innocent person on death row or put to death. And that's what's happening in parts of many cases. And, in fact, I think this is more of a conservative issue than it is a liberal issue. The reason is because it's the classic case of a government program gone awry where the government is ineffectively administering the program at huge expense to tax payers and with undesirable results. So when we're talking about the death penalty failing, that raises concerns among a broad spectrum of people ideologically.
NC: Have you ever faced opposition from victims' families in attempting to exonerate death row inmates?
DP: Our goal is to find the truth. If, in fact, as the evidence emerges someone on death row is innocent, we obviously believe in campaigning for their release. And in the course of doing that, we have encountered opposition from family members of murder victims. But in the end, when the truth emerges, they're often the most sympathetic to the plight of people who they wrongly hated for all those years. I'll never forget the scene in the courtroom when Dennis Williams and Kenny Adams, two of the Ford Heights Four, were freed. Two of the family members of the murder victims came up to them and apologized to them for hating them wrongly for all those years and they embraced.
NC: Can you tell us what the Medill Innocence Project is currently working on?
DP: No, because any investigations we have in progress are confidential until we reach a conclusion. And that's the same standard that news rooms use. For example, if you were to interview a reporter at the Chicago Tribune about what he or she is currently working on, they wouldn't be able to tell you. What I can say is that my students are currently working on 2 Chicago area murder cases. And then I am independently working on 3 other cases. Some of which have involved my students' research in the past. A case from Wisconsin, from Michigan, and down-state Illinois. So we're working on five all together. By the way, neither of them [student cases] are death row cases.
NC: And one final question: Coke or Pepsi?
DP: [laugh] Actually I don't drink pop, I drink water. I like bottled water. I don't drink alcoholic beverages or any form of pop.
NC: Any particular kind of water?
DP: Penta.
