Lifting a Shadow

When I left that job, that case was over, as far as I was concerned. Two juries - one jury I handled - said he was guilty and it was based on the evidence put in front of them and what they heard from both sides.

We didn't have a strong case. We try people every day on eyewitness identification.

I asked the same question back to you: If the same case were tried today and you still didn't have DNA - that is, either there wasn't DNA present or like in our instance, we didn't have DNA available, would he be convicted? Most of the people who answer that question say yes. Well, that's scary, isn't it?

I know that eyewitness identification is dangerous. That's not anything that's peculiar to me. Everybody knows that. Yet we've tried and we try cases on it all the time.

Thank God DNA has come along. I don't say he's guilty and I don't say he's innocent. I have not been made privy to what further investigation has gone on. I know what's printed in the newspaper. I haven't urged anybody to let me be privy. For it to take on a personal nature with me, I think, would be very crass. It is not a personal thing. I was given a job to do and I did it.

Our whole system has changed to where now you could not have, unless they were privately retained, a lawyer that had four years experience in a case. You couldn't have a lawyer that hadn't tried a capital case. You couldn't have a lawyer in a case that hadn't been second chair in a capital case. They instituted many safeguards that were not there before, and for the betterment of the system, surely.

If he is in fact innocent, yeah, I'd feel sorry for him and he's probably not the only person who's ever been convicted that might be innocent. The trouble with his case right now is you can say he's exonerated or he's vindicated - he's not. He's always going to live with that shadow over his head because nobody can say for sure.

The shame of it is if he is innocent, he's always going to have that little cloud over his head. Because all evidence indicated there was more than one person there, no matter what color, no matter who they were. Well, that means there's still somebody out there.

Judge Cromer was confronted with a very different record from what was before the courts who reviewed this matter previously. He's now got a confession from apparently the real perpetrator, a statement from him that Darryl Hunt had no involvement with it and DNA evidence to back all that, which of course was not the case before.

If that evidence had been before Judge (Melzer) Morgan I'm sure his ruling would have been different.... I'm quite certain that those juries would not have convicted if they'd had this evidence before them.

The criminal-justice system is a human process; therefore, it is inevitably not a perfect process. And it's very unfortunate that there was a miscarriage of justice in the Darryl Hunt case that caused him to serve 18 years in prison when he shouldn't have, and I'm delighted that apparently justice has now been done.

I don't know enough to be critical of the prosecutorial conduct here. It's a case where certainly I think there was some doubt all along, but that is frequently true. Every circumstantial-evidence case there's some doubt about, but there are standards by which we decide in which ones the evidence is sufficient to let a jury pass on it and in which ones it isn't. And in the ones in which it is, it's then up to the community as represented by 12 people to make that determination. Darryl Hunt is certainly not the only innocent person who's been in the prison system. And his case will not keep that from ever happening again.

Everybody was undecided on the first trial. They just couldn't decide which way they wanted to go.

I was just not satisfied. I just didn't know. I guess none of us really knew. When they polled in the jury room, I just said "guilty" but couldn't go for the death penalty. That was my only thing I could do for him - to see that he maybe didn't get the death penalty. But as far as the evidence and stuff against him, you couldn't say one way or the other. You couldn't not look at it and say that the man is innocent. I really didn't know.

It was just one of those things where you just weren't satisfied one way or the other.

I thought about it from time to time and I prayed for him a lot - just hoped that one day, you know, it would go one way or the other - they'd catch somebody else or somebody else would be involved in it and they could shed some light on it. I feel good that he didn't get the death penalty, because I don't think he'd have been around.

I view it as closure of one divisive chapter of our community and hopefully the beginning of a healing process for our community.

This is a very narrow window of opportunity. We do want to take full advantage of the climate to fully discuss this issue and learn from it.

Perhaps we'll develop some ways that the community can discuss what happened and get questions answered. Certainly, education is one thing in terms of the fact that we do have a different community and a different police department today, different procedures if you will, within the police department today. So I think a number of steps will be necessary.

From a community standpoint, it certainly will bring closure to this aspect of the case. I think now we need to turn our attention to the Sykes family and making sure that they can get closure, and then hopefully ... that the community can begin healing from the divisions created by this case.

He was always so kind and so gentle to me, I being Caucasian. He was never, ever belligerent, he was never unkind. I just knew that he was not capable of this, and I've held it all this time.

Both my black friends and my white friends said, "Do not get involved. He is not worth it, you know." But I felt like he was my schoolchild and he was worth it, and he is. He's a fine young man. He's like a butterfly. When he went to prison, he was a caterpillar. But now he's a butterfly.

I just think that we have got, we absolutely must, close the book on this. And we must start the healing process in Winston-Salem, because it did divide us. We all make mistakes. And Darryl is willing to forgive and so should the community.

I want somebody in this community to stand up and say, "Darryl Hunt, come to work for me." Now that's when I will know that we have begun to heal.

He needs to know that people have accepted the fact that he was not responsible.

Longtime supporter, and father-in-law of Hunt since 2000

We, over the years, almost two decades, have been so close to having Darryl exonerated only to be disappointed that to have heard the words coming from the judge that his sentence was actually vacated and that he was a free man and the case was being overturned ... it's just a wonderful feeling, but also a tremendous feeling of relief.

I do believe that there's a tremendous energy present in Winston-Salem to go through our healing process. I think the healing process in Winston will be in part defined by a kind of trust on both sides of (U.S.) 52 ... that we have not had in the past. Both the African-American and white communities in Winston-Salem have been highly suspicious of one another's motives and attention, particularly because of this case

So many African-Americans just could not fathom that this case made any kind of sense or was worthy of conviction. I think just the opposite was true in the white community.

I think now that the city has seen that outspoken so-called radicals can be correct in their ideas, it might be more palatable today for the city to come together and recognize that we can't kill the messenger because we might not understand, but we have to listen to the message.

Darryl Hunt is actually a gift to the city of Winston-Salem. It's unfortunate that his circumstances have been so dire and he's suffered the way that he has suffered.

Through Darryl's ordeal, there have been lines of communication and cooperation that have been forged between very diverse elements of this community.

We are thankful that God has tested the community in the way that he has ... a kind of new beginning, a kind of new day having been dawned with the close of this case.