A Murder in the Park

In 1983, Anthony Porter was sentenced to death for the murder of two teenagers on Chicago’s south side. Amid allegations of police brutality, and thanks to the investigations of Northwestern University journalism students under the tutelage of Professor David Protess, Porter was released in 1999. New evidence pointed to a man named Alstory Simon as the perpetrator. The media brouhaha over Porter’s wrongful imprisonment led Governor Ryan to banish the Illinois death penalty and commute the sentences of all death row inmates. Professor Protess and his students were media heroes. But there was one problem: in his fervor to abolish the death penalty, Protess seems to have promised witnesses money and a cut of book and movie deals to change their stories. Alstory Simon, now in jail for life, was pressured to confess. Part police procedural, part morality tale, A MURDER IN THE PARK incorporates vivid reenactments to bring the convoluted details of this landmark case to life. – B.B.