Amanda Knox On Access To Justice Ahead Of Headlining Innocence Project Event

The Illinois Innocence Project will host Amanda Knox at a virtual fundraiser for the organization on Thursday evening in an event billed as “Guilty Until Proven Innocent.”

The Illinois Innocence Project, based at the University of Illinois Springfield, is part of a larger network of Innocence Project organizations throughout the U.S., which aims to free the wrongfully incarcerated and prevent wrongful convictions in the first place. The Illinois Innocence Project has helped release 17 innocent men and women in Illinois, including five in 2020.

In the nine years since Amanda Knox was acquitted on appeal after being wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for the murder of her roommate in 2007, Knox has cleared her name and now works as a journalist and speaker.

Knox’s 2013 memoir, Waiting to be Heard, details her experience with the Italian criminal justice system, including early missteps and eventually abuse in police and prosecutor conduct in the investigation into the brutal murder of Knox’s study abroad roommate Meredith Kercher.

This story aired appeared on NPR Illinois on December 9, 2020.

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Civil Rights Leader Urges Students: Keep Fighting, With Love

Earlier this month, Diane Nash told a full auditorium of University of Illinois Springfield students that she and fellow civil rights activists, “Loved you before we met you.”

She said efforts to make the U.S. a more equitable place had been done, and are still being done, “For generations yet unborn.”

And she urged others to join the cause, or risk sliding into what she sees as an increasingly authoritarian state.

Nash, a native of Southside Chicago, was a key strategist and leader of the student faction of civil rights efforts during the sixties and beyond. She co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which aimed to create a participatory democracy and helped initiate efforts that led to the march from Selma to Montgomery, and ultimately the Voting Rights Act, signed into law in 1965.

Nash is a lesser-known civil rights leader in comparison with her male peers, though as time marches on, her contributions are becoming more widely heralded. In the 2014 film Selma, she is portrayed by actress Tessa Thompson.

Nash is one to cut right to the heart of the matter. “No one can give you what you want unless you know what it is,” she told students.

As a young person, she asked Nashville’s mayor, on the steps of City Hall, if he believed it was wrong to discriminate against people based on the color of their skin. He said he did believe it was wrong, and Nash said that led to a positive shift that ultimately helped lead to the desegregation she and others fought for.

Nash favors a term she coined in place of “nonviolence.” She calls “agapic energy” a force based on the love of all humankind. It’s a force that can be used to “wage war without weapons of violence,” with energy produced from love versus hate, she said.

According to her philosophy, individuals are never the enemy. Unjust political and economic systems are the enemy, racism is the enemy - but you can love an individual regardless of their beliefs and actions while confronting the systems they represent.

This story appeared on NPR Illinois on September 21, 2018.

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Otwell, Contreras Bring Home AP Awards

NPR Illinois had been recognized for excellence in reporting during the recent Illinois Associated Press Broadcasters Awards.

Reporter Rachel Otwell took home a first place award for Best Hard News Feature. Her report “Shootings in Springfield Leave Many Seeking Solutions” was done after the death of 19 year old Andres Booker III in a city park. The community was seeing an uptick in violence at the time.

Judges were impressed with Rachel’s work. “Great use of sound. The reporter really took listeners to Comer Cox Park in this story,” they wrote.

Rachel, a Rochester native, has been with NPR Illinois since 2011. Her work focuses primarily on equity and the arts. She graduated from the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois Springfield, where she interned with NPR Illinois.

Daisy Contreras was also honored with a second place award in the Best Investigative category. Daisy produced a feature story titled “The Trouble with Temp Work.” The Illinois Issues piece looked at working conditions for those with temporary employment and problems that include wage theft.

Daisy accompanied a group of these employees in Elgin on their way to work. She found Illinois, because of transportation advantages, is home to many warehouses which employ temporary workers.

Daisy is from Chicago. She graduated from the Public Affairs Reporting program at UIS in 2017. She produced her winning feature while an intern with NPR Illinois, where she is now a full time reporter covering state government.

The story was reported on April 25, 2018, by NPR Illinois.

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