Chicago teens win top honors for radio documentary about death of 5 year old thrown from window

Jet, June 2, 1997

The late Eric Morse, 5, may be gone but definitely not forgotten thanks to 18 year olds LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman.

Remorse: The 14 Stories of Eric Morse, Jones and Newman's outstanding National Public Radio documentary which chronicles the death of Eric Morse, who was thrown to his death three years ago from a 10th floor Chicago housing development window by two boys, 10 and 11, after he refused to AM candy for them, has not only kept Morse's legacy alive, but it has received wide-spread recognition.

Jones and Newman recently received the Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Journalism Award, becoming the youngest ever to receive the prestigous honor and the first radio production to win the top prize in the competition's 29-year history!

The two teens, who worked with Peabody Award-winning public radio producer David Isay, took top honors in the radio category and beat out winners in eight other divisions to claim the grand prize of $2,000 and another $1,000 for the radio award.

Though honored, Jones and Newman weren't seeking accolades when they decided to do the piece. They maintain that they just wanted to make a difference.

We were trying to help the community so that this won't happen again," tells Newman, who lives in Chicago's Ida B. Wells housing development where young Morse lived. "To throw a 5-year-old out the window ... makes no sense."

Jones says they are proud to win the award, but the circumstances under which it came about were at too great a cost.

"I'm still looking at the death of a 5-year-old, and for me to win an award, I can't forget that," cites Jones, who lives one block away from Newman. If I could give that award back to bring Eric back, I would."

The boys responsible for Morse's death were convicted of the crime and in January last year became the youngest in the nation to be sentenced to a maximum-security juvenile prison.

With no previous experience in radio broadcasting, Jones says the two learned everything they needed to know in practically a day. For the piece Remorse, Jones and Newman interviewed neighbors and friends and relatives of the victim and the suspects. Morse's mother refused interviews with the media; the only interview she ever granted was with the teens.

"She felt comfortable with us because she knew we would understand what she was going through. We come from the same environment," explains Newman, who will be a senior at Future Commons High School in Chicago this fall.

To no surprise, the teens didn't just nab the RFK Journalism Award for their sensitive documentary. They also won a Peabody Award and a Hillman Foundation citation for their moving documentary about Morse.

This wasn't the first time Jones and Newman did a radio documentary or their first time winning awards for their work.

At the age of 14, the twosome, along with Isay, worked on their 10 first radio documentary, Ghetto Life 101, which discusses their life and their families. The 30-minute documentary won more than a dozen national and international awards, including the Prix Italia, Europe's oldest and most prestigious broadcasting award.

The aggressive teens aren't resting on their laurels. They recently penned their first book with Isay, Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago, published by Scribner.

Explains Jones, who'll be attending Florida State University this fall, about their string of honors, "Everything is in divine order, and I'm not challenging it."