Good morning, Chicago.
The death row inmate left the Cook County Jail on Feb. 5, 1999, a free man for the first time in roughly 16 years after narrowly escaping execution by lethal injection.
Anthony Porter had already been fitted for a suit to be worn in his coffin. Convicted and sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of a teenage couple in Washington Park in 1982, the Chicago resident was granted a stay by the Illinois Supreme Court about 48 hours before he was scheduled to be put to death.
Porter was later granted a pardon based on innocence, a high-profile exoneration that shed light on many problems with the death penalty system and paved the way for Illinois to abolish capital punishment in 2011.
But the case proved more complicated over the years: Another man confessed, recanted and that conviction was also tossed, culminating with allegations that a local journalism professor and university students used unethical tactics and practices while investigating the double homicide.
To this day, justice still hasn’t been served in the 1982 Washington Park shooting, despite two convictions in the case.
Twenty-five years after the dramatic freeing of Porter, executions in the United States have been on an uptick for the past several years, although nowhere near as prevalent as they had been historically.
Read the full story by Angie Leventis Lourgos.
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Belt Junction is a notorious bottleneck. Fixing it could increase rail capacity, but benefits to South Side residents could be mixed.
As Percy Fields waits at Belt Junction, three freight trains stand nearby with their engines running and headlights shining in the chilly, predawn darkness.
Fields is president of the Belt Railway of Chicago, which is operating one of the trains. His job is to keep it moving.
But on this morning, like most others, the freight carriers must wait until a solitary Metra commuter train rolls through and opens up the track. Then they can blast their horns, clank and start to move.
A Chicago man offers housing and community to hundreds of migrants
Joselin Mendoza sleeps on a thin mattress in a cold stone basement with her two kids in a two-story house in Roseland with 25 other migrants. The house has no furniture, and families from Venezuela sleep on mattresses or blankets on the floor. Their clothes and stuffed animals are stacked in neat piles nearby.
The property’s owner Chris Amatore came by in a truck one day and offered her the chance to leave a city-run shelter before she and her family were kicked out.
Students, teachers and activists rally for investment in green schools and climate resiliency
Dozens of students, teachers and activists gathered Sunday afternoon outside City Hall to launch the Green New Deal for Chicago Public Schools campaign, urging officials to increase investments in green schools and climate resiliency.
Police investigate the scene where Kajuan Raye was fatally shot by police Sgt. John Poulos in November 2016.
Chicago police sergeant involved in two controversial fatal shootings now running for Cook County judge
Sgt. John Poulos, who is also a licensed attorney, is running for a vacant North Side judicial seat against three opponents: local attorneys Michael Zink and Nickolas Pappas, and Nadine Jean Wichern, chief of the civil appeals division in the Illinois attorney general’s office.
Death cuts off dreams of man recently freed after 3 decades in prison
Lee Harris died just as he was embarking on the final chapter of a life interrupted.
Harris spent 33 years in prison, convicted of murder. During his decades of incarceration, he obtained a college associate degree, volunteered in prison ministries and directed gospel choirs, all while trying to prove his innocence.
Eight months before his death last Thanksgiving at age 68, the Chicago man finally won back his freedom.
Financial crisis at Heartland Alliance leads to furloughs, program cuts and an attempt to sell hundreds of affordable housing units
One of the city’s leading social service organizations, beset by a pair of financial crises that last year engulfed its housing and health care divisions, could be on the verge of splitting up.
The turmoil at the Heartland Alliance, a sprawling nonprofit encompassing five divisions providing a vast array of social services, threatens to upend important safety net programs at a time when Chicago is experiencing an influx of migrants, many of whom need help with health care and housing.
Injured Bulls guard Zach LaVine grabs a ball after it went out of bounds during the third quarter on Dec. 26, 2023, at the United Center.
Chicago Bulls are running out of time — and options — as the trade deadline approaches
The team’s trajectory had been established long before Saturday’s announcement that Zach LaVine would undergo season-ending surgery. The Bulls can’t keep their heads above .500.
Taylor Swift accepts the award for best pop vocal album for “Midnights” during the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 4, 2024, in Los Angeles.
Taylor Swift wins album of the year at the Grammy Awards for the fourth time, setting a new record
Swift won album of the year at the Grammy Awards for “Midnights,” breaking the record for most wins in the category with four.
One of the night’s biggest awards, record of the year, went to Miley Cyrus for “Flowers,” her second-ever Grammy and second of the night.
Review: In ‘Illinoise’ at Chicago Shakes, a Sufjan Stevens album is choreographed into something new
“Took my bags, Illinois,” wrote singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens. “Dreamt the lake, took my boy. Man of Steel, Man of Heart. Turn your ear to my part.”
That single stanza, Tribune critic Chris Jones writes, more than anything else to be heard on Stevens’ 2005 album “Illinois,” seems to have driven the gorgeous new theatrical experience at The Yard at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
