Chapters
Shownotes Transcript
All right, you guys, we are jumping into an ad and I wanted to let you know that listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and new ways of thinking.
Listening can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits, and ultimately your overall well-being. Audible has the best selection of audiobooks without exception, along with popular podcasts and exclusive Audible Originals. All-in-one, easy app.
app. Enjoy Audible anytime while doing other things, household chores, exercising, on the road, commuting, you name it. Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your everyday routine without needing to set aside extra time. You guys, since becoming an Audible member, I've found it so easy to fit more stories into my day. Recently, I've actually been listening to Twilight on audiobook and it's been a game changer during my daily walks.
So there's more to imagine when you listen. New members can try Audible now for free for 30 days with your first audiobook included. Visit audible.com slash MWMH or text MWMH to 500-500. That's audible.com slash MWMH or text MWMH to 500-500 to try Audible free for 30 days. Okay, you guys, with the summer heat in full swing, literally 90 degrees today, I'm
I know we're all worrying about our deodorant holding up. That's why I've got to tell you about Lume. They have whole body deodorant. Lume whole body deodorant. And it's the only deodorant that I will use. Lume is formulated for all those spots that tend to get extra sweaty and stinky in the heat. Like your pits, Garrett's butt crack, and even your feet. Oh my gosh.
Lume was created by an OBGYN, so it's totally safe for all your sensitive areas. And the best part, it's baking soda free, paraben free and pH balanced. So it's gentle on your skin while keeping you fresh. You guys, I have been using Lume and let me tell you something. They are anti chafing. So you can put them on your thighs. You can put it under your boobs, your
Literally, it's great. Ready to try it? New customers get 15% off all Lume products with our exclusive code. Just use code MWMH at LumeDeodorant.com. That's L-U-M-E-D-E-O-D-O-R-A-N-T.com. And don't forget to use code MWMH for 15% off your first purchase.
Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Marlin. And I'm Garrett Marlin. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Alright, jumping into my 10 seconds here. Peyton and I, off camera, this will probably not be an episode, she was singing Bear's Necessity.
Bare necessities is Mother Nature's recipe. Bare necessities. Is that the name of the song? You started. Don't be like Peyton singing. You started. I finished. She's insane. Anyways, she was singing that. And then it reminded me of when I was Mickey Mouse in my third, fourth, fifth grade play. Can't remember which grade. Anyways, I was Mickey Mouse.
The Mickey Mouse. Yeah. And it was a big deal. You said you even had gloves. Oh, I had gloves. I would like jump up and down in the middle of the play. Be like, Mickey. Or I forget what I would say. Oh, no. I think I'd say something about Disneyland. And then I had a big spiel about Walt Disney at the end, too. I was basically like the star. I'm just saying, like not to brag or anything.
If anyone from elementary school is listening to this by some crazy chance, I mean, I think they can testify. I'm just saying it was pretty cool. I don't know if we were talking about plays. I remember we were in Disneyland. Yeah. And you told me that you played Mickey. Yeah, I know. This was just a couple months ago. I need to find a picture. I'm going to find a picture, and I'm going to post it on Instagram and YouTube.
And I'm going to start teaching Mickey Mouse classes. Just because, you know what? You have to do the voice? My gosh, I can't remember. Babe, it was so long ago. Did you have to? I don't think so. Or were you just like, hey, I'm Mickey. I had a really high voice until 7th, 8th grade anyways. Like really, really high. 7th, 8th. Is that a little bit younger than, you can be honest. When did it actually drop? Was it more like 10th?
Like yesterday. It dropped yesterday. Yeah, it was probably, no, no, it was probably seventh, eighth grade. Because I think around sixth grade, I feel like it's already getting a little lower. That feels young. When I say hi, I mean hi. Like it was super, super high. How does Mickey even talk? He's like, hi, everybody. Actually, it wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. I thought it was going to be way more cringier than it was. You try. So long story short. No, thank you.
Long story short, I don't know, it reminded me of when I played Mickey Mouse. I know it sounds stupid, but it was pretty cool. We brought back our OG merch, the first merch we ever launched, the I Love It and I Hate It merch. They'll be up for about another week or less.
So go and check it out. That is probably the merch that I wear the most. Yeah, I saw some people saying, oh, it just says I love it. And I'm like, yeah, it's our original merch. Yeah, it was like our original one. It has I love it. We did all our own. And I hate it on the front and then MWMH on the sleeve, which is kind of nice if you don't want murder with my husband. Right.
Across all of your merch. It's kind of nice to be a little more subtle. Okay, our case sources for this episode are The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, Cleveland.com, WGNTV.com, USA Today, Colorado.edu, CapitalPunishmentInContext.org, TheGuardian.com, MurderWithMyHusband.com,
The State Journal Register, The Seattle Times, LawJustice.com, CookCountyRecord.com. And I'd also like to single out one additional case source, an article in the Atavist magazine, but I don't want to say the name of the article. So this week, we're going to the south side of Chicago, Illinois, specifically to Washington Park. All right.
which is an expansive, historic 372-acre park. It was first constructed in 1870. Washington Park has an outdoor pool area where our story actually takes place, as well as an indoor pool, a cricket field, a sculpture garden, large grassy areas, softball fields, a
playground and a large nature area complete with lagoons. The outdoor pool is very popular with local residents and quite large 50 meters with eight swimming lanes. And there is the annual Bud Billiken parade and picnic that is an extremely popular event in Chicago.
It's been held every year since August 1929, with the exception of 2020. And it's the biggest African-American parade in the United States celebrating African-American life.
It's a giant festive event attracting throngs of people every single year. In 1982, the Bud Billiken Parade took place on August 14th, and tens of thousands of people had turned out to take in the festivities. Many people are still out and about in the area around Washington Park that day and well into the night and even into the wee hours of the next day, August 15th, 1982.
It's a hot, muggy evening, and even though the outdoor pool and surrounding pool area are closed at night and secured with a fence, people are known to hop the fence in order to go in for a little dip to cool off. Now that night, a number of people are hopping the fence of the outdoor pool to go swimming or to hang out in the pool, trying to find some relief from the mid-August heat and maybe also to keep the party going.
So it's now after midnight. A young teenage couple, Marilyn Green, who's 19 years old, and 18-year-old Jerry Hillard are among the people out that hour at Washington Park.
Now, Marilyn and Jerry are engaged to be married. They, like many other people, have hopped the fence to the pool area. However, they're not actually in the pool. Marilyn and Jerry are sitting in the upper portion of some bleachers that are located right by the public schools just west of the pool area. But like I said, people are swimming in the pool, people are drinking, people are enjoying a little downtime after the festivities.
But at about 1 a.m. that morning, the tranquility is suddenly shattered. Gunfire erupts in the bleachers right near the outdoor pool, the bleachers that Marilyn and Jerry were sitting in.
It's obvious someone is shooting in the bleachers. Someone is shooting both teens multiple times. Oh, my gosh. A police patrol car is actually close by. And with shots fired in the park, the police arrive on the scene almost immediately. An officer sees Marilyn Greene running away from the bleachers, holding her neck covered in blood and pointing to the southern end of the bleacher. She is bleeding profusely.
Wow. Okay. Wow.
Now, Jerry Hillard is also grievously wounded. Two bystanders in the pool area named William Taylor and Henry Williams help police carry Jerry to an ambulance, but he also sadly dies. An officer sees a man running south next to the bleachers away from the crime scene in the middle of all this chaos.
The police officer stops and frisks this man, but doesn't find a gun on him, so the officer lets him go. So were these two the only two shot? Yes. Interesting. The police, of course, want to talk to the two bystanders who'd helped carry Jerry. Maybe they saw something. Again, this was 39-year-old William Taylor and 29-year-old Henry Williams. To avoid confusion with their names moving forward, though, I'll just refer to them by their last names, so William Taylor as Taylor and Henry Williams as Williams.
Taylor and Williams tell the police that they came to the park to swim and drink vodka and some beer. And when police first speak to them, Taylor and Williams say they didn't see anything. They hadn't seen the person who committed the shooting. The police, however, want to lean on them harder. They apparently didn't believe them, that they didn't see anything, and they believe they know something. So they take both men, Taylor and Williams, to the police station for more questioning. Now, the
The men are interviewed together and they tell the police that they had climbed the fence to enter the pool area that night and then they both went swimming. Williams eventually decided to get out of the pool. He is just in the process of getting dressed and pulling his pants on when a man named Anthony Porter comes up to him and not in a friendly manner. He's holding a gun and he asks Williams for money.
This Anthony Porter then puts the gun to Williams' forehead and takes a grand total of $2 out of Williams' pocket. Williams tells police that he looks for his friend Taylor, who's still swimming in the pool at this point, and then he sees Porter up in the bleachers now holding the gun on Jerry Hillard.
Williams finishes getting his clothes on and hops the fence again, this time to get out of the pool area. And as he's jumping back over the fence, that's when he hears the gunfire. He doesn't see the actual shooting. Taylor at first tells police that he saw nothing as well. The detectives continue interviewing the two witnesses for hours and even take them out to a restaurant to try and get them to talk.
Back at the station after 17 hours of questioning, Taylor eventually changes his statement. 17 hours of questioning. Uh-huh. Taylor finally tells police that Anthony Porter was the shooter and that he witnessed the shooting. So...
It's hard because we've seen situations like these before where you question someone for X amount of time. They get coursed into saying something that isn't true or something that the officer might want to hear. Don't know if this is the situation, but it does happen. Yeah, I think after 17 hours, I just wouldn't trust it no matter what was said. Even if it was a confession or not, that's just a long time. That's a long time.
Taylor and Williams tell police that they were just too scared to identify him at first. Taylor says now that he saw Anthony Porter pull the trigger and shoot Hillard.
Taylor says he saw Porter shoot Hillard, but that he didn't see Marilyn Green get shot. He recounts that his friend had just been mugged and that Taylor jumped out of the pool. And as he was drying off with a towel, he saw Anthony Porter up in the bleachers holding a gun out in his hand and it was pointed at Hillard. He saw Porter shoot Hillard twice. He then saw Porter run down the bleachers and runs within three feet of him to flee the scene.
Now, during their hours at the police station, the Area 1 precinct, both Williams and Taylor are shown a book with mugshots. Williams identifies Porter and says that he knows Porter as he's seen him around the neighborhood nearly every day for the last year and a half. So not only is he like identifying him out of a book, but he knows the guy that he's named.
Taylor identifies Porter from the mugshots as well. He says he'd seen Porter around the neighborhood once or twice a month for the last two or three years. And at this point, Williams tells police that he thinks Anthony Porter is a member of the Cobra Stones gang. So they throw this name out and then the police take all of this to the state attorney's office. But the state attorney on call says there's not enough evidence to get an arrest warrant for Porter.
I mean, all they have are these two witnesses' statements, and they've apparently been interviewed together, which shouldn't happen, so it kind of throws their statements out. The prosecutor interviews the two men separately moving forward, and he also goes out to the scene with them to see if they'll give consistent accounts of what happened.
After these interviews, the state attorney find their statements to be credible. And they also speak to a couple other people who were present at the pool as well. So it's not like only these two men were at the pool. These were just the two men who helped carry Jerry to the ambulance. Meanwhile, the authorities are looking into Anthony Porter's background. They discover he was born December 14th, 1954, which would make him 27 years old at the time of the shootings.
On October 6, 1980, this is less than two years earlier, Anthony Porter had pled guilty to bail jumping relating to a previous criminal violation. And significantly, he pled guilty to beating and robbing a man named Douglas McGee on the bleachers next to the outdoor pool in the Washington Park. So this is the exact same location where the double murder would take place two years later and he would be identified by witnesses.
Porter was sentenced to three years in prison for that robbery. Now, based on all of this evidence, law enforcement officers believe they have probable cause now.
On August 17th, 1982, a warrant is issued for Anthony Porter's arrest. Word gets out and Porter hears that his name is being mentioned in connection with the murders that had happened at the park. So he, on his own, goes to the police station voluntarily to tell the police that he wasn't involved when he hears that his name is being thrown around.
However, the police arrest him for the murders and charge him based primarily on the evidence of William Taylor's eyewitness identification that he says he saw him pull the trigger. That's super hard. There's no physical evidence. Yeah, that's not much evidence. And no one has found the murder weapon. Porter is charged with two counts of murder, one count of armed robbery, one count of unlawful restraint, and two counts of unlawful use of weapons.
So now, two days after the murders, the police already have their suspect in custody. On August 18th, 1982, three days after the murders, Taylor goes to the police station to do an in-person lineup. And he identifies Anthony Porter as the shooter in this in-person lineup.
Around this time, the autopsies are performed by Cook County Deputy Medical Examiner Joanne Richmond. The autopsies reveal that both teens had been shot at close range by a .38 caliber revolver. Marilyn Green was shot three times, all termed through and through shots, so they went completely through. And two of the bullets were shot into her left neck and one was through her left hand. Hillard was shot twice, once above his left eye and once on the left side of his head.
Now, as all of this is happening and Anthony Porter is in custody, the police are still conducting interviews, including of the victim's families, which, okay, this is a good sign that at least they're still continuing the investigation. Ofru Green, this is Marilyn Green's mother, speaks to the police and she points them towards a suspect who
But it's not Anthony Porter. She tells police that she suspects a man named Alstory Simon did this. She tells them that Alstory and Jerry, her daughter's fiance, had been arguing over drug proceeds. And she also tells police that she herself had seen Alstory Simon and his wife Inez Jackson with Marilyn and Jerry at some point not too long before the two were shot that night. Okay.
Okay, you guys, shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall can be a challenge, but I'm telling you right now, my Quince products that I have, my Quince clothing items are my go-to staples in the fall. They make it so easy. They have timeless, high quality items. I use their silk skirts. I literally wear them in so many ways with boots, with tights, with a sweater, with a crop top.
They have cashmere sweaters from $50, pants for every occasion, washable silk tops, so much more. And the best part is that they are priced so well because they partner directly with top factories. So they cut out the cost of the middleman and then they pass the savings onto you. So you are literally getting cashmere sweaters for $50.
I just got a cashmere sweater from Quince that I am going to be wearing. I also have a pair of their linen pants. I'm actually just going to pair them together. I will post it on my social media and you will see it. So make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash husband.
For free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. You guys, if you want free shipping, make sure to do quince.com slash husband. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash husband to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash husband. They have the cutest clothes. You need to go check it out.
Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launch online shop stage, to the first real life store stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Shopify is there to help you grow. Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers with the internet's best converting checkout up to 36% better compared to other leading commerce platforms.
and sell more with less effort thanks to Shopify Magic, your AI-powered all-star. Peyton and I love Shopify. We have been using it for, I mean, I've been using it for six years now, so many years, and it's amazing. It just keeps getting better and better with more updates. It's easy to use. It's user-friendly. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the US, and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklyn, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries.
Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash husband, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash husband now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash husband.
Ofru or Ofi as she goes later submits a sworn affidavit stating that Marilyn Green had money on her that night as she had just cashed a welfare check. She said that Inez Jackson knew this because she had been present with Marilyn when she used the money to make some purchases.
Ophie didn't believe the official position that Porter was the shooter. So three days after they've arrested Anthony Porter, but the mom of Marilyn comes in and says, I don't think this, this guy shot my daughter. It's hard that the eyewitness, like he hasn't retracted his statement. You know, he's still just like, yeah, he did it. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I'm sure there's more to it than we know, but I guess I just find it interesting that,
that an innocent person, if this person is innocent, can go to jail for X amount of time and he hasn't done anything. Just because someone said something. Right. Someone lied that he did it. Her mom believes that Inez lured her daughter to the park that night and then Al's story was a shooter. And now that Marilyn Greene's mother has named a different suspect, the police follow up by locating and interviewing him and Inez, which again...
Good, because according to them, they already have their killer in custody. Now, Simon and Inez Jackson tell police that they weren't in the park at all that night.
Oh, okay. No way. Okay.
At some point, another witness named Carl Morrow, who was a friend of Jerry Hillard's, said that he saw Jerry argue with a man who wasn't Porter shortly before the murders. Another witness, Tanya, said that she saw Inez Jackson and her boyfriend with the two murder victims on the night of the murder. So this is the second eyewitness who has come in and said, no, I saw these two with these two that night. All right. So I assume at this point they're going to let Porter out, correct?
So after this, the case against Anthony Porter proceeds full steam ahead. Wow. But first, on August 4th, 1983, Porter pleads guilty to aggravated battery for another incident where he shot a gun at someone else and he receives a six-year sentence for this offense.
In the fall of 1983, the double murder case against Porter goes to trial, and it's quick. William Taylor testifies on behalf of the prosecution. According to a later opinion by the Illinois Supreme Court, Taylor testifies at trial that he initially denied seeing Porter shoot Hillard because he was afraid for his own life.
He testifies that he'd previously seen Porter jump two old men before and one of his own friends as well. And so that's why he was afraid. Taylor testifies that he's living with his great-great-grandmother who's 95 years old and that he's especially afraid for her safety. The state offers no forensic evidence at trial. This is 1983, so we're also in the years before DNA evidence is super conclusive, but
were also in the years before electronic evidence such as cell phone records or cell phone pings could have placed him there or not. However, the state offers no fingerprint evidence, no footprint evidence, and no blood evidence. The prosecution doesn't even have the murder weapon. The state's case is based entirely on this witness's testimony. An officer testifies at trial that he saw a black man running near the bleachers that night and later realized it was Anthony Porter.
Oh, man, I just she said he said things really got me. Right. Yeah. I don't know. I'm just not OK with that. He admitted on stand that he didn't file a police report about this at the time about seeing a black man running after the shooting. And when asked how Porter's name first came up in the investigation, given the witness's initial reluctance to admitting to seeing anything, the police say they overheard Williams and Taylor bring up Porter's name, but that neither Williams nor Taylor immediately identified him.
The defense puts on two alibi witnesses at trial, and the first alibi witness is a man named Kenneth Doyle. He testifies that he and Porter sat on the back porch of Porter's mother's house on the evening of August 14th, 1982, and stayed there until 2 a.m. on August 15th.
So he says, no, I was with him. Like there's absolutely no way he did this. But on cross-examination, Doyle's testimony is heavily impeached when he admits that he originally told police that he only drank with Porter until 10.30 p.m. And now at trial, he's saying it was 2 p.m.
Doyle testifies that he lied to police at the time because he was afraid of going to prison. The final witness the defense called was a woman named Georgia Moody. Now, she was in a relationship with one of Porter's brothers, and she testifies that she and Porter were at Porter's mother's house that evening playing cards and that he didn't leave the house until 2.30 a.m. with Doyle, that man, and another friend. Yeah.
Porter doesn't testify, obviously, but this is a death penalty case. So the stakes are high. Oh, my gosh. I can't believe you have a death penalty case based off of eyewitnesses. And two witnesses who come forward and say, no, no, no, we were with this man. That's pretty insane. Two separate witnesses. Yeah.
So the trial wraps up, and in September of 1983, after deliberating for nine hours, the jury comes back with their verdict. Anthony Porter is found guilty. Oh, my gosh. On all counts. He's convicted of the murders of Marilyn Green and Jerry Hillard, armed robbery and unlawful restraint of Henry Williams, as well as the unlawful use of weapons. Okay.
The prosecution prevails despite having relied primarily on the eyewitness testimony of that one man, William Taylor. That same year, after the judge hears everything, he sentences Porter to the death penalty for the murders.
Porter is sent to Menard Correctional Center where serial killer John Wayne Gacy is in the cell right next door to him. It's a very rough place. Porter says that he's physically and psychologically abused while there. And over the next few years, Anthony Porter's legal team raises various legal challenges to his conviction and death sentence.
On February 21st, 1986, the Illinois court affirms Porter's conviction and his sentence of death. So despite the appeals, they say no. This is crazy because I don't think he did it.
At this point, all of his direct appeals are exhausted and it all seems completely hopeless. But now we're going to fast forward to 1998. Anthony Porter has spent 16 years on death row and he's scheduled to die on September 23rd, 1998.
Porter is just 50 hours from being executed. He's already been fitted for the suit that he'll wear in his coffin.
A new attorney comes in and brings a challenge to the death sentence 50 hours before he's supposed to be executed. And it's based on Porter's mental capacity. The Illinois Supreme Court grants Porter a four month reprieve from the death penalty based on the fact that Porter had scored so low on an IQ test. So they're like, OK, we'll give four months to look into this further.
The case is sent back for a hearing to see whether Porter is able to comprehend the nature of his punishment and whether executing him would be inhumane. So this has nothing to do with his innocence. Yes. Just everything to do with the punishment. Yep.
The argument is that Porter is intellectually disabled. Now, one of the new lawyers working on Porter's death penalty case has reached out to a man named Davin Protis in late August 1988 looking for assistance. Now, Protis was then a professor at Northwestern University's School of Journalism. He had earned his Ph.D. from University of Chicago and came on as the research director for the Better Government Association. Protis
eventually becomes very well known for his efforts to exonerate those who have been wrongly convicted. So it makes sense that his new lawyer reaches out to him. So with the four-month delay, they put together a whole team to investigate Porter's murder conviction and his claims of innocence. And this team is actually led by Protis and is assisted by private investigator Paul Cialeno, who's a good friend of Protis's and even lectures in Protis's college classes.
And he's about to start teaching a new class that was really hard to get into. Like a lot of students applied, but they was he was only going to take very few. And one of his things that he would teach is he would encourage students to dive into these criminal cases and, quote, get their hands dirty.
So for this seminar class, he divides the class into various teams to investigate different criminal cases to try to see if people were wrongfully convicted. Now, 16 students are enrolled in his course in this fall class of 1998.
He has four potential cases for them to work on. And the one involving Anthony Porter, he feels is particularly challenging and interesting. He's like, ah, this is going to be a hard one to overturn. So,
So four students volunteer to tackle it and they take on the case file. This case file that he's now working as the head of to try to get this guy cleared, but he knows it's going to be hard. And then his four students are like, oh, we'll just do this for class, right? Like it's not real. It's just for class.
So not long after diving in, these four students become convinced that the prosecution's case against Porter was very thin and that he deserved a new trial just based on that. And also based on the unreliability of the witnesses who testified against Porter.
They look particularly at the testimony of how the police first even heard about Porter's name. They pursue the theory of whether the two witnesses had been coerced by the police to name Porter as the shooter. Like, where did he come from? In October 1998, the students in the journalism class go to the prison to interview Anthony Porter in person. Like, they are diving pretty heavy into this. The students find Porter's claims of innocence to be believable.
They then decide to visit the scene of the crime at Washington Park. They come to the conclusion that it would have been physically impossible for William Taylor to have seen and recognized Porter's face as the shots were being fired in the bleachers. Henry Williams, this is one of the state's witnesses, is now dead, but William Taylor is still alive.
The students interview Taylor, but he insists that what he testified at trial was true. He says, I know beyond a doubt that Anthony Porter is guilty. I just wish he were executed so I could get on with my life. Oh, I'm sure you do. By December 1998, however, the students continue questioning Taylor, and he eventually recants his testimony to these four students. Weird. He now says that the police pressured him to ID Porter. Okay.
So these four students are working on this and they get this man to say, actually, never mind. I lied. The students, though, they want more evidence to back up their theory that Porter is innocent. So in January 1999, Protis starts the winter seminar with a class called investigative journalism. Three of the four students enroll so that they can keep investigating Porter's case.
case. One student who doesn't re-enroll is replaced by two other students. Now during his interview, Porter has also pointed the students to other witnesses like Inez's nephew, Walter Jackson, who Porter had seen in prison and who had told him that he knew Porter was innocent.
This Walter Jackson himself was in prison for murder, so the students track him down. He tells them that he was staying with Inez Jackson and Alstory Simon back in August 1992 at the time of the murders. He said that that night, Inez and Alstory went out with their friends, Jerry and Marilyn. So this is now the third person placing them. Later, Inez and Simon came back to the apartment and said that they took care of the two of them. It's that time of the year. You
Your vacation is coming up. You can already hear the beach waves, feel the warm breeze, relax, and think about work. You really, really want it all to work out while you're away. Monday.com gives you and the team that peace of mind. When all work is on one platform and everyone's in sync, things just flow. Wherever you are, tap the banner to go to Monday.com.
Hola. ¿Cómo está? Hola, ¿cómo estamos? Want to learn a new language? Well, the best way is to uproot your entire life, move to Spain, and live there for the rest of your...
I made that up. I went off the ad. Let me go back to the ad read. The best way is to uproot your entire life. Drop your... Oh. You literally followed the ad. I didn't read the rest of that. Drop yourself in the middle of a new country and figure it out from there. I just want to let everyone know that's what I did. But... That's what I did. It worked. If you're not ready for that, you can still learn a new language the next best way. And that is with Babbel. See you.
Speak like a whole new you with Babbel, the science-backed language learning app that gets you talking. Wasting hundreds of dollars on private tutors is the old school way of learning a new language. Babbel's 10-minute lessons are quick and handcrafted by over 200 language experts, ready to get you talking your new language in three weeks because talking is the key to really knowing any language.
Designed by real people for having real conversation, Babbel gets you talking. You guys, I actually use Babbel to brush up on Spanish when we travel. I love it. It is so easy. And then I can actually kind of keep up with what's going on. And with over 16 million subscriptions sold, Babbel's 14 award-winning language courses are backed by a 20-day money-back guarantee. So there's no pressure. Buy Babbel and travel.
Here's a special limited time deal for our listeners right now. Get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription, but only for our listeners at babbel.com slash husband. Get up to 60% off at babbel.com slash husband spelled B-A-B-B-E-L.com slash husband. Rules and restrictions may apply. Walter Jackson said that Jerry Hillard had owed Simon drug money and that Simon needed to get away to Milwaukee to...
run away from his crimes. Next, the students go looking for Inez. In late January, they go to Milwaukee and find Inez living with her children. She says that she's scared of Simon. This is her man at the time. And she says that Simon had hit her in the past.
The group offered to take her out someplace to get something to eat, and they videotaped their interview with her. She says on video that the four of them had gone out that evening, despite her telling police that they weren't with them, and that Simon and Hillard had gotten into an argument and that Simon had shot Hillard and Green.
She tells the group on tape that Simon said she better not say anything or he'd shoot her too. This is insane. Like this guy's literally on death row and he didn't do it. And these students are proving him innocent, doing the work that is there. I mean, the work's there. So the students bring the tape to the team that is trying to overturn his conviction. And they decide to send that interview to CBS News. Oh, smart. Yes. Okay.
They are worried, though, for Inez's safety. So to protect her, they just want Simon to be arrested and put in custody. But to do this, they decide that they're probably going to need to lie to Alstory Simon about the evidence they have and that it wasn't just Inez who said it. So they put together a fake interview where they have someone from the office on tape pretend to be an eyewitness to Simon killing them that night. Got it.
Then the defense team goes to Simon's place and brings along another guy with him and they go to confront him with the evidence. They lay out the evidence against him and Simon shakes his head saying, what else do you got? They then show him the staged video. But Simon doesn't fall for it. He goes, that guy wasn't there that night.
That's what he says. How would he know? Exactly. How would he know? And he stays perfectly calm. He's like, that guy wasn't at the pool that night. But at the same time, the TV was on at Simon's house and the news was playing the recording of Inez naming Simon as the killer, CBS News was.
This, though, does rattle Simon. So the fake tape didn't, but this one does. And Al's story ends up confessing to the double murder of Marilyn Greene and Jerry Hillard. I'm surprised he just confessed like that. And this team, the defense team, was recording this whole interview. So now they have the taped confession.
So on February 5th, 1999, after turning all of this into police, Anthony Porter is released from prison after spending 16 years on death row. 16 freaking years for something he was not involved in at all.
He was really at with those people. I guess he was probably going to spend three-ish plus years anyways for his aggravated assault. But that was a completely different thing. I mean, time served. Yeah, completely different case. That doesn't, yeah. Well, and also, he was just 50 hours from being executed. Which is scary. If the lawyer didn't figure out...
What he did with saying that he was incompetent, basically. Right. And so this was amazing. The Innocence Project had gotten involved. It was a miracle, essentially. According to the Corey Wise Innocence Project at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Law, the leading factors in wrongful convictions are eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, police and prosecutorial misconduct, flawed forensic evidence, and perjured testimony.
Eyewitness misidentification is one of the most common factors in cases of wrongful conviction. Nationally, 28% of all exonerations involve eyewitness identification. Wow.
Furthermore, false confessions have been a factor in 12% of proven wrongful convictions. In September 1999, Simon pleads guilty to the two murders of Marilyn Greene and Jerry Hillard. At his guilty plea, Simon confesses again and says he didn't mean to harm Marilyn. The charges he pleads guilty to are second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Hmm, I'm surprised that it's second-degree murder.
He is then sentenced to only 37 years in prison. I mean, he'll be nine years old, basically. So the chances of that are very low. Right. But still. So during the sentencing, he apologizes to the two victims' families. And the case is finally wrapped up. Like justice has prevailed in the end, except not so fast.
There is outrage in the community and in the media that an innocent man, Anthony Porter, came so close to being executed for these crimes. So in response, Governor George H. Ryan puts a temporary hold on the death penalty in the state. Protis and his students are treated like even bigger celebrities for their heroic work. And in 2000, after having served 16 years, Protis
Wrongfully in prison, Porter is given a certificate of innocence by a judge and receives $145,000 in restitution. That's it? Yes. Oh, my gosh. But Porter spends it. The money is quickly gone. I mean, it's easy. Oh, of course. I mean, I don't want to say it's easy, but it's not a lot of money for 16 years. No, yeah.
And Porter is having trouble adjusting to life on the outside. Eventually he's arrested for assaulting his mother and daughter. He also spends way too much time watching TV. He finds it difficult to find a job.
And he ends up filing a lawsuit against the city of Chicago, and the trial is set for 2005. Around this time in 2002, about two years after he was sentenced for the double murder, Alstory Simons petitions the court basically saying that he was coerced and tricked into confessing by that team. Like it wasn't even the real cops, and then it was used against him. His petition is denied, and he doesn't get any traction on this new claim. Good.
Finally, in 2013, Cook County State Attorney's Office, Anita Alvarez, decides to reexamine Simon's case because of all these new allegations. People coming forward saying that this defense team and these students had been very pushy and coercing. It wasn't just him who said that. Inez said that. A lot of people that they talked to said it.
So she tries to look into the case based on all of this. And on October 30th, 2014, after looking into the matter, the state attorney in her office file a motion to vacate Simon's conviction because... What? And who did it? The judge grants the motion. And so he's released after serving 15 years for the double murder. But what does this mean?
Well, as written by the Chicago Tribune, nobody will be held accountable for the double murder. That's insane. Despite it having two convictions.
That's a hugely unsatisfying outcome. But also this is now a case that has sent a man to death row has come unraveled twice. Yeah. Like two men have been vacated. So what we're left with is the tragic reality that a young teenage couple who were out enjoying an August evening in the park never got to enjoy the rest of their lives despite who killed them. Like,
At this point, who even knows? They are the two victims who have been nearly forgotten because of everything else that has gone on in this case. So let's just take a moment right now to remember Marilyn Green and Jerry Hillard because their case has kind of turned into a media frenzy that will probably never, ever get closure. I can't believe that Simon got out.
It's so confusing. It's hard because these days now social media solves a case. No one cares. But back then, because some students did it, apparently it was wrong. Right, right. It's hard.
That's interesting. And again, I guess there was no physical evidence. It was all he said, she said yet again. So I don't know, maybe that's the issue. Didn't do it. That's what I'm saying. Like, sure. It kind of points to him doing it. You know, these students that looked into it, the defense team that looked into it, it points to him.
But there is no, I mean, there's so much he said, she said that the case is kind of cloudy, which is why I'm even saying at the end, like the victims have been completely forgotten because of all of it. Because the case is so overshadowed. Yes. Well, that was our case for this week. And I guess we'll see you guys next time with a regular episode. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye.