Murder With My Husband - 155. Marilyn Green and Jerry Hillard - The Unsolvable-Solved Case

Episode Date: March 13, 2023

On this episode of MWMH, Payton and Garrett discuss the murders of Marilyn Green and Jerry Hillard. https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Case Sources: The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun Times, Cleveland.com, wgntv.com, law.umich.edu, usatoday.com, Colorado.edu, capitalpunishmentincontext.org, theguardian.com, The State Journal-Register, The Seattle Times, law.justia.com, Wikipedia, cookcountyrecord.com, washingtontimes.com, and deathpenaltyinfo.org, The Atavist Magazine by Matthew Shaer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Yes, you energy! Energy for everything! Captain Banner now to learn more! Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband.

I'm the husband. Alright, jumping into my 10 seconds here, Peyton and I off camera. This will probably not be an absurd. Um, she was singing Bear's Necessity. Bear's Necessity! Mother Nature's Recipes! camera this will probably not be an episode. She was singing bears necessity. Bear necessity. Bear necessity. Bear necessity. That's not the name of the truck. You started. Don't be like, Pagan singing. You started. I finished. She's insane. Anyways, she was singing that and then it reminded me of when I was

Mickey Mouse and 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 forget what I would say. Hey. 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, not to brag or anything. If anyone from elementary school is listening to this

for I buy some crazy chance, I mean, I think they can testify. I'm just saying it was, it was pretty cool. Like, 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, like it was,

this was just a couple months ago. I need to find a picture. I'm gonna find a picture and I'm gonna post it on Instagram and YouTube and I'm gonna start teaching Mickey Mouse classes. Just because, you know what, can make you like, you want to do the voice. Oh my gosh, I can't remember. Vave 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 seventh, eighth grade anyways. Like a really, really high. Seventh, eighth, is that a little bit younger than you can be honest. When did it actually drop? Was it more like? Oh, I don't.

10th. Like yesterday. It dropped yesterday. Yeah, it was probably. No, no, it was probably 7th grade because I think around 6th grade. I feel like it's already getting a little lower. I feel so young. When I say hi, I mean hi. Like it was super, super hot.

How does Mickey even talk? He's like, okay, they try. Everybody. Actually, it was bad. It wasn't bad. I thought it was me whimmered cringier than it was. You try. So long story short.

No, thank you. Long story short. I don't know 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 that I love it and I hate it merch. It'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's just as I love it. And I'm like, yeah, it's our original merch. Yeah, it was like our original one. It has our love for it. It 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 crossed all of your merch, it's kind of nice to be a little more subtle. OK, our case sources for this episode are the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun Times Cleveland.com, wgntv.com, USA Today, Colorado.edu, capital punishment in context.org, theguardian.com. Word with my husband.com. The State Journal Register, the Seattle Times, lawjustice.com, cookcountyrecord.com, and

I'd also like to single out one additional case source and article in the Adivis 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, 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 lagoon. The outdoor pool is very popular with local residents and quite large 50 meters with eight swimming lanes. And there is the annual Bud-Billican 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-Billican 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 15, 1982. It's a hot, muggy evening and even though the outdoor pool and surrounding pool area are closed

at night and secured with offense, 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 Green running away from the bleachers holding her neck, covered in blood and pointing to the southern end of the bleachers. She is bleeding profusely. An officer helps her into the patrol car and rushes Maryland to the hospital. But her injuries are too

severe. And she dies before the sun even rises. Even though she's conscious at first, the gunshots to her neck have destroyed her voice box, so she's unable to tell the police anything about what had happened. 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 frisk 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. 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 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 two dollars 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. William's 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 gun fire. He doesn't see the actual shooting. Taylor at first tells police that he saw 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. 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. Were you questioning someone for X amount of time? They get coarsed 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 that's 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 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 one precinct, both Williams and Taylor are shown a book with mug shots. 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 mug shots 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 Cobras 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 6th,

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'd 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 17, 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. There's no physical 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 18, 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 autopsys are performed by Cook County Deputy Medical Examiner Joanne Richmond. The autopsy's revealed that both teens have been shot at close range by a 38 caliber revolver. Maryland 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 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, but it's not Anthony Porter.

She tells police that she suspects a man named Al Story Simon did this. She tells them that Al Story and Jerry, her daughter's fiance, had been arguing over drug proceeds, and she also tells police that she, had been arguing over drug proceeds. And she also tells police that she herself had seen Al's story Simon and his wife Inaz Jackson with Marilyn and Jerry at some point not too long before the two were shot that night. Okay, you guys, we are getting into an ad. I know you guys have both heard the story about how Garrett and I were both paying separately for peacock.

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promo code husband. Oh, fruit or oafie as 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. Oafie didn't believe the official position that Porter was the shooter.

So three days after, they've arrested Anthony Porter, but the mom of Maryland comes in and says, I don't think this guy shocked my daughter. It's hard that the eyewitness, 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 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. Someone lied that he did it. Her mom believes that Inaz lured her daughter to the park that night and then Al story was a shooter. And now that Marilyn Green's mother has named a different suspect, the police follow up by locating and interviewing him and I Nes, which again, good because according to them, they already have their killer in custody. Now Simon and I Nes Jackson tell police

that they weren't in the park at all that night. Apparently, the police show them a photo of the other suspect, Anthony Porter, and ask if they know anything about the crime or him. They said they don't, and then Simon and I Nes don't hear from the police again. They are never questioned again. Oh, okay. Either the very next day or a few days later, I'll story Simon and I Nes Jackson move away. They move from Chicago and head to Milwaukee.

At some point, another witness named Carl Morrow, who was a friend of Jerry Hillards, said that he saw Jerry argue with a man who wasn't porter shortly before the murders. Another witness, Tanya, said that she saw Inaz 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 gonna 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 its quick William Taylor testifies on behalf of the prosecution. According to a later opinion by the Illinois Supreme Court, Taylor testifies a 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 to 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. We're 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 a 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 okay 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 to 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 14, 1982 and stayed there until 2 a.m. on August 15. 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 pm. And now a trial he's saying it was too.

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. 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, we were with this man. That's pretty insane. Two separate witnesses. 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. 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. 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 21, 1986, the Illinois Court affirms Porter's conviction and his sentence of death. So despite the appeals they say no. It's 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 23,

1998. Porter is just 50 hours from being executed. He's already been fitted for the suit that Hallware 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, okay, we'll give four months to look into this further. The case is sent back for 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, just everything to do with the punishment. the nature of his punishment and whether executing him would be inhumane. So this has nothing to do with his innocence, just everything to do with the punishment. 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 Dave and 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 PhD 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 Protess and is assisted by private investigator Paul Cieleno,

who's a good friend of Protess' and even lectures in Protdice'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 gonna be a hard one to overturn. 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 gonna 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 recognize 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 student's interview Taylor, but he insists they what he testified a 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. Yeah. 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.

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 Inaz'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 I'll story Simon back in August 1992 at the time of the murders.

He said that night, Inez and I'll story 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. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Have you ever found yourself at a crossroads unsure of which direction to take in life? We all face those moments of uncertainty where the right path seems elusive. But guess what? There's a solution that can help you find clarity and confidence. And that's therapy. As you guys know, I talk about therapy all the time. I go to therapy weekly. I definitely am a big supporter of it. It's helped me manage my stress and anxiety,

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That therapy be your map to a better life. Visit betterhelp.com slash husband today and get 10% off your first month? That's betterhelp.htlp.com slash husband. 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 Ainez.

In late January, they go to Milwaukee and find Ainez 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 videotape 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 Hilard had gone into an argument and that Simon had shot Hilard and green. She tells the group on tape that Simon said she better not say anything or he'd shoot her to.

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 works 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. They are worried, though, for INES 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 Al Story Simon about the evidence they have. And it wasn't just INES 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. 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. I would he know. Exactly. I would he know. And he stays perfectly calm. He's like that 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 I Nes 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 story ends up confessing to the double murder of Marilyn Green and Jerry Hillard. And surprise you just confessed like that. And this team, the defense team was recording this whole interview. So now, now they have the taped confession. So on February 5th, 1999, after turning all this into police, Anthony Porter is released from prison after spending 16 years on death row. Freaking years for something he was not involved in at all. He was really at with those people. I guess he was probably gonna spend three-ish plus years anyways

for his aggravated assault, but that's 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. 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 Green and Jerry Hillard at his guilty plea Simon confesses again and says he didn't mean harm Marilyn the charges he pleads guilty to our second degree murder and involuntary manslaughter hmm I am 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 ends, except not so fast. There is

outrage in the community and in the media that an innocent man, Anthony Porter, came so close to be executed for these crimes. So in response, Governor George H. Ryan puts a temporary hold on the death penalty in the state. Yeah. Protests and his students are treated like even bigger celebrities for their heroic work and in 2000 after having served 16 years wrongfully in prison Porter is given a certificate of innocence by a judge and receives a hundred and forty five thousand dollars in restitution It's it. Yes. Oh my gosh, but Porter spends it the money is quickly gone. I mean, it's easy to, I mean, I don't want to say it's easy,

but it's not a lot of money for 16 years. 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 Simon's 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. Finally, in 2013, Cook County State Attorney's Office Anita Alvarez decides to re-examine 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 coursing. It wasn't just him who said that. I know 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 and her office file a motion to vacate Simon's conviction because why it's then 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. But what does this mean? Well, is 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 is sent a man to death row has come unravel 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. I'm so confusing. It's hard because these days now social media solves a case. No one cares, but back then because students did it apparently it was wrong. Right. Right. It's interesting. And again, I guess there was no physical evidence. It was all he said she said, yeah, again. So I don't know. Maybe that's the issue. And then 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 the cases 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.