Alstory Simon is now free, after Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez vacated charges against him in a 1982 murder case. Simon was convicted after confessing to investigators with the Chicago Innocence Project, but it was later determined that his conviction was coerced. It's another black eye for Northwestern and former professor David Protess; the organization's predecessor, the Medill Innocence Project, was shut down amid allegations of falsification and coercion.