A Murder in the Park (2014)

When a group of Northwestern University journalism students, with the guidance of their professor David Protess, reinvestigate Anthony Porter’s murder case, they manage to get his death sentence overturned and shine a light on another suspect, Alstory Simon. The story is simultaneously frustrating and fascinating. The film presents evidence that the original conviction was sound and lays almost all of the blame for the fifteen years Simon wrongfully spent in jail on the professor-led investigation. While that investigation was almost certainly shoddy, guided more by fame and turning over the death penalty than getting to the truth, the film doesn’t give nearly enough focus on why the ‘justice’ system was so quick to send both of these men to prison, particularly with Simon’s obviously coerced confession. The student project was successful in that it really did spotlight how questionable the death penalty can be when convictions are so easily tossed aside and innocent people jailed.