JOURNALISM STUDENTS FIND NEW EVIDENCE

Our criminal justice system is built on a series of checks and balances. The idea is to prevent even a single innocent man from going to prison.

But even the system sometimes breaks down. Enter the public and the media to help publicize and scrutinize questionable cases.

A group of journalism students took their task to hand recently and, in the process, may have saved a life.

Two days before a man convicted in a 1982 double murder was to be put to death in Illinois, the Supreme Court agreed to reconsider the case. A private investigator and group of journalism students at Northwestern University had uncovered a videotape in which another man said he pulled the trigger.

It's not the first time for such results. Northwestern professor David Protess typically assigns students in his investigative reporting class to take a second look at old murder cases. In June 1996, four men who had spent 18 years behind bars for murder were released after the students and a private investigator discovered new evidence.

It's too early to tell if Porter will be released. A new trial may be in the picture. But these students should feel proud of their role as a check and balance in America's criminal justice system.