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Exonerated Death Row Inmate Going Back To Prison For Stealing Deodorant

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Anthony Porter

Exonerated Death Row inmate Anthony Porter is now charged with stealing deodorant. (Credit: Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office)

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CHICAGO (CBS) — A Chicago man who spent years in prison on a wrongful murder conviction is headed back behind bars.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Dave Berner reports, Anthony Porter was on Death Row for 17 years, for the murder of a teenage couple in Chicago in 1982.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s Dave Berner reports


He was released in 1999, after Northwestern University professor David Protess and his students investigated the class as part of the Medill Innocence Project, and obtained a confession by another man.

But Porter is in trouble again, and is going back to prison for one year. He pleaded guilty on Tuesday to retail theft for stealing a stick of deodorant from a Walgreens drugstore on the city’s South Side.

Porter was charged in September 2011. He was given credit for 60 days served in Cook County Jail and will be under supervision for one year when released, according to Cook County State’s Attorney’s office spokeswoman Tandra Simonton.

Porter was originally convicted of the August 1982 murders of Marilyn Green, 19, and her fiancé, Jerry Hillard, 18, in a swimming pool near Washington Park, and sentenced to death.

But the Northwestern students discovered major flaws in the prosecution. Meanwhile, in an interview with a student, William Taylor – the man who implicated Porter – recanted his statement and said he had been threatened and intimidated by police.

In 1999, Porter was released and exonerated and another man, Alstory Simon, was charged with the murders. Simon was later convicted of the murders and sentenced to 37 1/2 years in prison.

(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS Radio and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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  • http://blog.dallascandobetter.org/archives/2446 Same Story, Different Day | Dallas Can Do Better Blog

    [...] times over – the real perpetrator gets a lesser sentence. Madness. Check out the article here. Share [...]

  • http://www.chicagonow.com/dennis-byrnes-barbershop/2012/08/steals-deodorant-freed-death-roll-inmate-porter-heads-back-to-prison/ Steals deodorant, freed death roll inmate Porter heads back to prison | The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor

    [...] No kidding. Are we still buying this man's BS about his innocence? So many questions remain about this case that it's hard to be convinced that the Northwestern University Innocence Project got it right when they helped spring this guy. CBS2 story about Anthony Porter is here. [...]

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