By David Protess
March 14, 2010
Five people, including the two young sons of exonerated Illinois death row inmate Anthony Porter, were killed in a Marion Junction, Ala. house fire on March 7.
Anthony Porter, Jr., 7, and Derriontae Ousley-Porter, 4, perished along with another child, their grandmother and her friend. The blaze was caused by a gas leak that ignited, according to sheriff's investigators.
The Porter children had attended Salem Elementary School near Selma, Ala. Their bodies have been transported to Chicago for funeral services and burial.
Anthony Porter, Sr. was wrongfully convicted of a double homicide in Chicago's Washington Park in 1982. Sentenced to death, Porter came within 50 hours of execution before the Illinois Supreme Court ordered a temporary stay to determine his mental competency.
During the reprieve, Medill student-journalists and a private investigator uncovered proof of Porter's innocence. That evidence included a sworn recantation by the State's star witness, an affidavit from an eyewitness to the crime and a videotaped confession by the actual killer.
Porter was freed on February 5, 1999, embracing members of Team Porter in a scene captured by photojournalists from around the world. Former Illinois Governor George H. Ryan subsequently granted Porter a pardon based on innocence and, crediting the Medill student-journalists, declared a moratorium on executions in 2000 that remains in effect today.
Calling from his South Side apartment this morning, Porter, 55, said he had been "crying a lot" over the loss of his sons. "I'm hurting terrible," Porter said. "They was my babies....I'm just trying to take it one day at a time."
"I'm a God-fearing man, but I've been questioning, 'What, dear God, did I do in my life to deserve more pain on top of pain?'"
He said he last saw his sons in May of 2009, shortly before they moved to Alabama. "I missed them so bad," Porter said. "Now I can't even get them proper clothes for their burial. I got nothing."
Porter worked at a Chicago youth organization since his release from death row, but is currently unemployed. He is living with his daughter, Thelma Alexander, and other family members.
Funeral services for Anthony, Jr. and Derriontae Porter will be held on Wednesday, March 17, at 10 a.m. at the Embassy Baptist Church at 5848 S. Princeton in Chicago.