Hearing scheduled in NU journalism students' case

A court hearing is scheduled later this morning in a case involving Northwestern University journalism students whose e-mails and grades were subpoenaed after their investigation of a decades-old murder case.

The hearing is to be before Cook County Circuit Judge Diane Cannon.

The Cook County State's Attorney's office subpoenaed Northwestern professor David Protess seeking his syllabus, grades and e-mails. His classes said they had uncovered evidence that Anthony McKinney was wrongfully convicted for a 1978 murder of a security guard.

Prosecutors claim that students may have been under pressure to prove McKinney's innocence for good grades.

Protess and the students have denied that.