Darryl Hunt is hoping that a DNA database usually used to put criminals away will be the vehicle that ultimately sets him free.
Judge Anderson Cromer signed an order yesterday in Forsyth Superior Court that will allow DNA samples taken more than 18 years ago from the body of Deborah Sykes to be compared with a database of about 40,000 DNA samples of convicted violent and sexual offenders operated by the State Bureau of Investigation.
If no matches are found, the samples would then be compared to a DNA database of more than 1.2 million samples operated by the FBI.
Cromer also ordered that any other potential DNA evidence - such as hair samples and fingerprint scrapings taken from the victim's body - should be retained for further testing.
Prosecutors did not oppose Hunt's request.
If the DNA taken from Sykes matches a suspect not connected to Hunt, the charges against him should be dismissed or he should be granted a new trial, said Hunt's attorney, Mark Rabil. It would be difficult to retry the case, because so many witnesses have died, Rabil said.
"Our hope is if we identify the real rapist then that ought to end the case," Rabil said.
Sykes was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in August 1984 while on her way to work as a copy editor for The Sentinel, an afternoon newspaper that closed in 1985.
Hunt, 38, has been twice convicted in her death.
He was first found guilty in 1985, but that conviction was overturned after a judge ruled that invalid evidence was presented at the trial. Hunt was tried and convicted a second time in 1990.
A second man, Sammy Mitchell, was indicted in the killing before Hunt's second trial. Mitchell still has not been tried in Sykes' killing. He is serving a 50-year sentence on a second-degree murder conviction in an unrelated death.
Finding a match in either the state or federal databases might not clear Hunt. DNA tests performed in 1994 ruled out Hunt or Mitchell as the source of the semen from the assault. But a state judge ruled in an appeal that the DNA evidence did not rule out Hunt as Sykes' killer or even as a participant in her sexual assault.
In 2000, a federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Hunt's request for a third trial.
Hunt is serving a life sentence at Piedmont Correctional Institution in Salisbury. He will be eligible for parole in 2005.
More than 12 people were in court yesterday to support Hunt, including Deona Cureton, a freshman at Winston-Salem State University who heard about the case as part of an American Studies class.
Cureton said she believes that Hunt is the victim of an injustice and wanted to come to court to show her support.
Rabil said he did not know when the DNA comparisons would be made.