Sunday, February 22, 2004
Darryl Hunt met with about 75 supporters at Emmanuel Baptist Church yesterday and answered questions ranging from what he likes to eat to how he plans to spend the rest of his life.
For Hunt, it was a chance to publicly thank the people who believed in his innocence during the nearly two decades he spent in prison for a crime that prosecutors now agree he didn't commit.
Hunt was twice convicted in the 1984 stabbing death of Deborah Sykes, a Winston-Salem journalist. He was freed in December after DNA tests identified another man, Willard Brown as the attacker. Brown told police that he acted alone in the killing.
For Hunt's supporters, yesterday was a chance to express opinions about what should be done to heal racial divisions created by the case. The audience was racially diverse, and several people took note of that as a sign of healing. People also made pleas for community action on such issues as abolition of the death penalty and better schools.
"I see different races coming together, and that is a positive that comes out of this injustice," Hunt said. He pleaded for people not to forget that "there are many more Darryl Hunts in prison" still.
"A lot of people wrote to me over the years that I have never met face to face," Hunt said. "That meant so much to me and helped me through my everyday life."
Hunt said that God had a purpose for the things that have happened in his life.
Someone asked Hunt what his prayer needs are now. "Keep the Sykes family in your prayers," Hunt said. "I only lost 19 years of my life. They lost their daughter."
Hunt's wife, April, sat in front and rose to acknowledge the applause after Hunt called her his "rock." Hunt said he plans to continue taking classes at Winston-Salem State University in hopes of getting a degree, but said he hasn't decided what he wants to do.
"Law is out," Hunt deadpanned, drawing laughter. "I think I pretty much mastered law."