Each year Medill School of Journalism professor and director of the Medill Innocence Project David Protess and his journalism class go through scores of cases of people on death row. He assigns his students to examine a handful of questionable convictions. All told Protess and his class have saved at least five people wrongly convicted of murder. While he is dealing with murder cases, his technique applies to any situation where a journalist is dealing with conflicting accounts and second-hand stories and hearsay. His lessons include: assume nothing; go directly to sources; do not rely on official accounts. Protess in his class draws three concentric circles - we call them the circles of corroboration.In the outer circle are secondary source documents, things like press accounts. The next circle in is primary source documents, trial documents like testimony and statements. The third circle in is real people, witnesses. In the inner circle are what Protess calls "The Targets": the police, lawyers, other suspects, and the prisoner.Protess has his students work from the outer circle in, following the trail of information, to see if any information disappears or was distorted along the way.You'd be surprised how much is in the early press accounts. "There is a lot there, especially early suspects the police passed by," Protess says.There are lot of reasons that can happen. The pressure to find the killer, close the case, reassure the public the streets are safe, to cut a deal with a suspect, to go for the guy who already has a record, and to get the press off its back.Terrible mistakes can happen, including innocent people being executed.But the lesson Protess teaches is that the journalist should constantly monitor each step of the process. Don't let things disappear unless you know why they have disappeared. Don't just take other people's word for it.Using Protess's systematic approach to cross-checking the documents and sources is an extraordinary demonstration of the power of methodical journalistic verification.[top]