The Medill Innocence Project engages undergraduate journalism students at Northwestern University in investigative reporting of miscarriages of justice, with priority given to murder cases that resulted in sentences of death or life without parole. We often collaborate with journalists, private investigators and volunteer lawyers. Our goal is to expose and remedy wrongdoing by the criminal justice system.
We were founded in 1999 by Medill professor and free-lance investigative reporter David Protess, who continues to head the Project. Other staff members include private detective Sergio Serritella and attorney Rebekah Wanger.
ABOUT OUR STAFF
David Protess, Project Director and Professor of Journalism
Professor Protess received his undergraduate degree in political science with honors from Roosevelt University in 1968 and his doctoral degree in public policy from the University of Chicago in 1974.
His career in journalism began at the Better Government Association, where he was research director from 1976-81. In the 1980s, he was a contributing editor and staff writer at Chicago Lawyer, a monthly magazine that specialized in exposing miscarriages of justice. Protess's articles about wrongful convictions also have been published in the Chicago Tribune, the National Law Journal, the Columbia Journalism Review, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He is the author of four books, including two award-winning books about wrongful convictions (co-authored with Rob Warden), Gone in the Night: The Dowaliby Family's Encounter with Murder and the Law (New York: Dell, 1993) and A Promise of Justice: The 18-Year Fight to Save Four Innocent Men (New York: Hyperion, 1997).
Protess joined the faculty of the Medill School of Journalism in 1981, combining a career in journalism education with investigative reporting. Beyond his impact on the criminal justice system in Illinois, the United States Supreme Court cited Protess's reporting in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), which declared unconstitutional the execution of the mentally retarded, and the Medill Innocence Project's amicus brief in Kennedy v. Louisana (2008) contributed to the high court's decision to rule out death sentences in non-murder cases.
His work has been recognized by ABC Network News, which named him "Person of the Week," and by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who proclaimed a day in his honor. He also received the Herb Block Award by the Newspaper Guild/Communication Workers of America, the Scales of Justice Award by Court TV, the Clarence Darrow Award by the Darrow Commemorative Committee, the Champion of Justice Award by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the H. Councill Trenholm Memorial Award by the National Education Association, the Media Spotlight Award by Amnesty International, the James McGuire Award by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Truth in Action Award by the World Detectives Association, and the Service to Prisoners Award by the Southern Center for Human Rights.
In 2003, he received the prestigious Puffin/Nation Institute Prize for Creative Citizenship, and in 2009 he was named among the thirty "most notable" investigative reporters since World War I in the six-volume Encyclopedia of Journalism.
Protess has been honored with numerous teaching awards, including "Top Prof" fourteen times (as recently as 2007) in university wide votes by Northwestern undergraduates. He also has received the university's Alumni Teaching Award. In 1994, he was named Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence.
Sergio Serritella, Private Investigator and Teaching Assistant
Sergio Serritella and David Protess collaborated on their first investigation in 2003. That pro bono partnership proved successful, and Serritella was soon offered a position as Protess' teaching assistant.
In addition to his work at the Medill Innocence Project, Serritella is President of The Tactical Solutions Group, a private investigations firm he founded. Over the years, Serritella has led homicide investigations that made legal history and garnered major media attention. Serritella has received extensive training in forensic science and criminal investigation from some of the nation's most prestigious educational institutions, including Northwestern University. However, Serritella points to his real-world experience as the biggest asset he brings to the classroom.
He chairs the Del Valle Youth Leadership Foundation, and is a member of the David Society of the Italian American National Union. Prior to founding his firm, Serritella advised members of both houses of the Illinois General Assembly on matters of public safety. He has appeared in Federal and State courts on behalf of both the prosecution and defense.
Highlights of his work with Medill students include: obtaining an incriminating videotaped statement from an alternative suspect in a homicide and recantations from a jailhouse snitch, the widow of a murder victim and a key witness in an armed robbery/murder. These findings all led to post-conviction petitions based on actual innocence.
“I'm honored for the opportunity to play a part in the development of the next generation of investigative reporters,” Serritella said. “I love hearing from former students with news that a technique I taught them made the difference in an investigation of their own.”
For more on Serritella from a former student's perspective, read this article published in the Daily Northwestern.
Rebekah L. Wanger, Program Assistant
Rebekah Wanger is the Program Assistant for the Medill Innocence Project, a position she has held since 2005. Rebekah received Bachelor's degrees in History and African-American Studies from Northwestern University in 1997 and went on to earn a Juris Doctorate from Rutgers School of Law in 2001.
At Rutgers, she served as Treasurer of the Public Interest Law Foundation, which awarded her a grant after her first year. Rebekah also edited and fact-checked texts and scholarly articles on criminal law and procedure for Professor George C. Thomas III, including his widely used casebook, Criminal Procedure: Cases, Principles and Policies. She has worked on immigration, housing, family and public assistance cases at organizations that include the HIV Law Project, the Association for Children of New Jersey, the Women's Rights Litigation Clinic and the Women & AIDS Clinic at Rutgers. Rebekah was published in the Women's Rights Law Reporter with a review of Valerie Smith's book "Not Just Race, Not Just Gender: Black Feminist Readings".
Before joining the Medill Innocence Project, she worked for four years as an Assistant Defender for the Defender Association of Philadelphia. During that time, she represented clients at preliminary arraignment, motions court, preliminary hearings, misdemeanor court, juvenile court, felony waiver and jury demand.
Rebekah is a member of the bar in Illinois. In June 2009, she received a certificate from the Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies Forensic Science program. She is a guest lecturer at Northwestern University's Center for Talent Development.