What a powerful experience to present w/ Robert Johnson at @medillschool.bsky.social Midwest Solutions Journalism Summer Summit. A far cry from the Hill Correctional Center interview room.

Thank you @debofficially.bsky.social + @amberpayne.bsky.social. And esp to Robert for sharing his survival.

Robert Johnson and I are excited to join this summit at Medill this Friday! See you there @ 303 E Wacker 🙌

Last week, Robert Johnson was in a prison cell. Now he’s free, after almost 30 years, riding on the Ferris wheel high above the City of Chicago.

The judge vacated Robert Johnson’s conviction!

His grandmother Mary Robinson said: “Thank you Lord. You did good. You did good.”

We are hopeful he will be released tomorrow after another hearing.

Part Two: There’s A Delicate Alchemy to Overturning A Wrongful Conviction.

Photo of Robert Johnson, his family and a blurb from his letter to me which I read ar the end of the Interview.

www.wbez.org/curious-city...

In 2011, a lawyer told me Jennifer Del Prete’s case was the one that kept her up at night. A mom and daycare worker sentenced in 2005 for murder under the debunked diagnosis of shaken-baby syndrome.

Today, after more than 20 years, a judge granted her a certificate of innocence, clearing her name.

Am I alone in feeling this is scary high for being a “low” level of support for state violence? A Gallup study says support for death penalty in U.S. is at its *lowest* level in five decades at 53%. www.newsnationnow.com/crime/suppor...