Monday, December 22, 2003
From the pulpit of Emmanuel Baptist Church yesterday, on the last Sunday before Christmas, the Rev. John Mendez spent some of his sermon on an old topic - the issue of justice.
He told his congregation he believed that Darryl Hunt should be freed.
During his sermon, Mendez said he would keep his congregation informed of developments in the case and asked them to continue to pray for Hunt.
"Whether they recognize it or not, Darryl Hunt is exonerated," Mendez said. "It's no longer a question about another trial, it's a question of letting him go."
Hunt, 38, has been convicted twice for the murder and rape of Deborah Sykes in August 1984. The case against Hunt, who has maintained his innocence from the start, has divided the city along racial lines. An eight-part series in the Winston-Salem Journal last month documented problems and inconsistencies in the case against Hunt. State authorities said Friday that they have a new suspect, after the state crime lab in Raleigh compared his DNA to a semen sample recovered from Sykes.
Elsewhere, ministers in the predominantly white churches within a few blocks of where Sykes was killed did not broach the subject of the old case, suddenly back in the news, during their services. The case, however, was on the minds of some churchgoers.
"There's been controversy surrounding it from the beginning," Jack Shearin said after the morning service at First Baptist Church on Fifth Street. "I think authorities need to pay attention to the scientific evidence, and make amends if mistakes have been made."
The Rev. Al Gilbert did not mention the Darryl Hunt case in his sermon at Calvary Baptist Church, the city's largest church. His message, a traditional one in this Christmas season, focused on the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Several people attending the service said they either were not familiar with the case or had not been keeping up with developments.
At Emmanuel Baptist, Mendez accused the Winston-Salem Police Department and Tom Keith, Forsyth County's district attorney, of using lies, trickery and manipulation to cover up the truth.
"White folks are too proud and racist to admit they made a mistake," he said. "This case is about power, about white supremacy, and about who is going to win."
In an interview at his home last night, Keith said he and the police department can fairly investigate the new suspect in the case.
• Paul Garber can be reached at 727-7302 or at pgarber@wsjournal.com
• Patrick Wilson can be reached at (336) 727-7286 or at pwilson@wsjournal.com
• Journal reporter Michael Hewlett contributed to this story.