Inmate in Landmark Illinois Case Released From Prison

After a re-examination of the case, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office asked a judge Thursday to free Alstory Simon

A prisoner whose confession helped free another death row inmate in a 1982 double killing has been released from an Illinois prison.

Alstory Simon's confession in the high-profile case led to the 1999 release of Anthony Porter, who had spent 16 years on death row and whose supporters maintained he was wrongfully convicted.

After a re-examination of the case, the Cook County State's Attorney's Office asked the judge Thursday to free Simon. The judge vacated the sentence and conviction.

"At the end of the day and in the best interests of justice, we could reach no other conclusion that the investigation of this case has been so deeply corroded and corrupted that we can no longer maintain legitimacy of this conviction," Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said.

The Porter case was instrumental in the campaign to end the death penalty in Illinois. Capital punishment in the state was abolished in 2011.

Porter served 17 years for a 1982 double murder before evidence surfaced he was innocent, thanks to the work of a Northwestern University professor and his students. At one point in 1998, he was just 48 hours shy of execution when attorneys won a stay by raising concerns about his mental competence at trial.

The Northwestern professor, David Protess, and his students obtained a confession from Simon, which eventually led to Porter being set free.

Private investigator Paul Ciolino, who got Simon to confess to the murders, said Thursday he has no regrets. Ciolino noted that Simon didn't just confess to him, but also admitted guilt to a TV reporter and his own lawyer.

Ciolino said Thursday in an emailed statement that "no one should be in prison if the state did not meet its burden of proof."

But Ciolino also still believes the man freed from death row, Anthony Porter, is innocent.

Former Gov. George Ryan has said Porter's release from prison was a reason he cleared death row in 2003.

"How many innocent people were sitting on death row facing death? That was my concern and the reason that I did what I did. I didn't want to see any innocent people electrocuted," Ryan said during a 2010 deposition given in connection with a civil case involving a person pardoned by Ryan when he was governor.

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