When David Protess—the hotshot professor who helmed the Innocence Project—got in trouble at Northwestern University, James Sotos saw an opportunity. Sotos is an attorney with a client and a message, and he believes that the more compromised Protess’s reputation, the better his chances of getting that message across.
Simon is now serving a 37-year prison sentence. Sotos, his lawyer, says he’s innocent.
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The release of Porter was a road-to-Damascus moment for Ryan and Illinois. Ryan went on to suspend executions in Illinois and empty death row, and a few months ago the general assembly and Governor Quinn formally abolished capital punishment. As for Protess, already riding high thanks to the Innocence Project’s work in the Ford Heights Four case of 1996, Anthony Porter helped the Innocence Project become arguably the most celebrated academic program in America.
But there was a problem, and Zorn conceded it. Simon had needed a lawyer, and the one he got was Jack Rimland, whose name and number were given him by Paul Ciolino, the investigator working for Protess who talked Simon into confessing. And as Zorn noted, Rimland—”acting in his capacity as president of the Illinois Attorneys for Criminal Justice—presented an award honoring those whose efforts had put his client [Simon] behind bars.” This was a conflict “too troubling to dismiss as irrelevant.” Zorn believed a full evidentiary hearing would vindicate Rimland’s defense of Simon and “expose fully the cynical opportunism animating Simon’s appeal.” But he still thought Simon deserved one.
Crawford was able to get Sotos and himself a meeting this week with Bruce Dold, the head of the Tribune‘s editorial board. (” I can’t say if we’ll do anything with his research,” says Dold.) Other than that—and, I suppose, the column you’re reading now—he appears to have accomplished nothing and possibly done Simon harm.
Crawford admits, “I guess I got a little pissed. If they think they can sit in their ivory tower ten years later and not even acknowledge I’m asking legitimate questions, they’re dealing with the wrong person. I’m going to employ the same set of standards they used.”
Professor,
