The Student Press Law Center reports:
Journalism students working on the Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism are fighting subpoenas requesting their grades, off-the-record interviews, electronic communications, notes, course syllabi, grading criteria for the course and receipts for expenses that students incurred for their investigation of the case of Anthony McKinney, who was convicted and jailed in 1978 for allegedly shooting a security guard in Harvey, Ill.
Illinois assistant state’s attorneys sent Medill professor David Protess, the instructor of the Innocence Project course, a subpoena May 20 to appear in Cook County’s Circuit Court on June 11 with the requested materials. Protess and his students retained the services of Richard J. O’Brien and Linda R. Friedlieb of Sidley Austin LLP, and they are attempting to quash the subpoena on the grounds that the students are protected by the Illinois Reporter’s Privilege Act and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), according to the Medill Innocence Project’s Web site.
Read more on The Student Press Law Center. Professor Protess provides the background and commentary on the McKinney case on the Medill Innocence Project web site.