About the Medill Innocence Project
Behind B18: Investigating the Ariel Gomez case
About the Ariel Gomez case
Criminal Justice News
- Lake County Announces New Arrests in Killings Once Linked to Other Men
Lake County prosecutors have announced new murder charges in two slayings that had been attributed t... - No Retrial in Lake County Rape Case
In another Lake County case undermined by DNA evidence, prosecutors say they do not plan to retry B... - Results of Post-Conviction DNA Testing to be Released in Virginia
Virginia's post-conviction testing project had excluded DNA from 78 convicted people, whose identit... - Man Wrongly Convicted In San Francisco Murder Questions Police Lineups
Maurice Caldwell, a man who spent 20 years behind bars for a murder a judge said he did not commit,... - Man Convicted in Colorado Freed by DNA Evidence
New testing of DNA evidence has cleared a man of a 1994 rape and murder, resulting in his release Mo... - Court Grants New Hearing for Death-Row Inmate
The Arkansas Supreme Court has granted a new hearing for death-row inmate Timothy Howard, convicted... - Evidence Mounts in Law Enforcement Storage Rooms
The Fond du Lac Police Department has more than 50,000 pieces of evidence packed into three rooms an... - Experts Examine Lake County’s ‘Epidemic’ of False Confessions
Juan Rivera, who was released from prison in January after being exonerated through DNA in the 1992 ... - NY Attorney General to Review Wrongful Convictions
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is creating a bureau to review potential wrongful convi... - Ex-Death Row Inmate Wins DNA Test Ruling
Kerry Max Cook will get access to the DNA testing that he hopes will help bolster his claims of inno...
Breaking News
Medill Innocence Project Probes First Amendment Issue: Illinois Prisons’ Camera Access Policy
Prison system denies FOIA request, calling it “unduly burdensome”
Announcements
The Society of Professional Journalists and the Chicago Headline Club have named the Medill Innocence Project a finalist for the 2011 Peter Lisagor Award in online feature writing.
A panel of Medill professors recently selected the Medill Innocence Project’s published investigation of the Donald Watkins case to be featured in the 2012 Medill Student Showcase.
Mission
The Medill Innocence Project supports the research of Northwestern University journalism classes on investigative reporting in which students look into cases that potentially involve miscarriages of justice, with priority given to murder cases and with a commitment to transparency and publication.Integrity
As members of the Medill community, all of our academic, professional, media, journalism and marketing communications work must meet the standards of the Medill Integrity code. This code commits us to honesty and fairness, as well as avoiding and identifying conflicts of interest.
[Read the full Medill Integrity Code]Reprints
You may republish our investigative stories so long as you follow these rules:
1. You can’t edit our material.
2. You have to link to us and include all of the links from our story.
3. You can’t sell our material.
4. You need to select stories to be republished individually; you may not copy our site in full.
5. You cannot republish our photographs without specific permission.
6. You have to credit us in the byline.To request a condensed version of our articles, please contact us at 847-491-5840 or e-mail alison.flowers@northwestern.edu
Freedom of Information Act
Press about the Medill Innocence Project
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Chicago Daily Law Bulletin: Journalism Students Shine Light on Murder After Trip to Arizona
20 Mar 2012
John Flynn Rooney reports on how Medill students tracked down an elusive co-defendant in the Ariel Gomez case who disputes Gomez’s claims of innocence. Read the full story here.
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Chicago Reader: The Medill Innocence Project Posts a Dissenting View
15 Mar 2012
The Chicago Reader’s Michael Miner reviews the second wave of investigative stories published by the Medill Innocence Project on the Ariel Gomez case. Read the full story here.
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The Fine Line Between Journalism and Advocacy
14 Mar 2012
The Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press examines journalism-based innocence projects. Read the full story here.
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Univision on the Ariel Gomez Case
27 Jan 2012
Spanish-language TV outlet Univision talks to the Medill Innocence Project about its findings into the case of Ariel Gomez, who is convicted of a 1997 murder he says he did not commit. In December, journalism students supported by the Medill Innocence Project published their case investigation. Watch Univision’s story about their work here.
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ABA Journal: Journalism and Justice
28 Dec 2011
Writer Kevin Davis explores the challenges a journalism-based innocence project faces in “Journalism and Justice: Did Innocence Project Student Reporters Get Too Close to Lawyers?” Read the article here.
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Chicago Daily Law Bulletin: Journalism Students Shine Light on Murder After Trip to Arizona




