So there's a journalism class at Northwestern that investigates claims of wrongful convictions and innocence in inmates. It's called the Medill Innocence Project, and it's been around for a decade, and gotten 11 innocent men out of jail, including 5 from death row.

So of course, they're still at it, this time investigating a 31-year-old murder conviction. The Cook County prosecutors are having none of it this time, though. They are subpoenaing grades, transcripts, and so on for the whole class.

Local prosecutors have subpoenaed the grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, expense reports and e-mail messages of the journalism students themselves.

The prosecutors, it seems, wish to scrutinize the methods of the students this time. The university is fighting the subpoenas.

Wow. Intimidation much?

What the students have found is pretty interesting, too.

The students said they had found, among other things, that two eyewitnesses had recanted their testimony against Mr. McKinney and could not have seen him commit the killing because they were watching a boxing championship (Leon Spinks vs. Muhammad Ali). The students collected an affidavit from a gang member who, they say, confirmed Mr. McKinney’s alibi that he was running away from gang members when the shooting took place.

The students have also suggested alternative suspects in the case and offered witnesses who said they had heard the others admit their involvement.

It doesn't surprise me that prosecutors don't like to admit that they were wrong. It does somewhat surprise me that prosecutors don't like to admit that their predecessors 30 years ago might have been wrong. Why fight to keep an innocent man in jail if he's really innocent? Why not find out and let him out if they were wrong? It's not like you have to say you yourself made a mistake; indeed, you can play yourself as the hero righting a wrong.

Or you can go after a class of journalism students. Which, btw, seems like a stupid group to try to intimidate. It seems like the perfect place for them to go to the press, with whom their hoping to work and would love some real contact.