Death Row Stories feature should air this spring…

PARIS, IL. (ECWd) –

CNN has been working on a “Death Row Stories” segment featuring Michale Callahan and Randy Steidl for the past several months.

It is scheduled to air this spring.

In the past, national media featured the double murder in Paris, Illinois, and the subsequent wrongful convictions, with 48 Hours airing an episode of their own (click here and here) and had reportedly had been threatened with lawsuits during its filming. On The Case with Paula Zahn aired a segment (here). A book written by Michale Callahan has also been published (here).

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In a “non-related incident”, Northwestern University is a named Defendant in a Federal Civil Suit, filed on February 17, 2015, (Tribune article here) filed against David Protess, Northwestern Illinois University, Paul Ciolino, and Jack Rimland in what turned out to be an alleged coerced confession of double murder by Alstory Simon which secured the release of former death row inmate Anthony Porter.

Simon was later release after 15 years in prison.

Attorneys for Simon allege Defendants conspired to frame Simon in order to secure the release of Porter. They also allege unethical conduct by the students and Protess, who was teaching journalism at Northwestern at the time. (read Complaint here)

A word of caution when reading the Complaint, the allegations against these defendants are just that. Allegations. The techniques complained of are similar or the same as used against people every day by police investigators in order to elicit the responses they are looking for.