Saturday, July 08, 2006
RALEIGH
Darryl Hunt had few options while he sat in prison for 19 years, before he was freed and pardoned for a murder in Winston-Salem that he never committed.
Hunt denied from the beginning that he was involved in the rape and killing of Deborah Sykes, but was twice convicted.
His attorneys filed appeals, questioning the case against him and asking for new trials.
But he was kept in prison until court-ordered DNA testing led investigators to another suspect.
Legislation making its way through the General Assembly would have given Hunt and other inmates another, limited option for their appeals.
It would create an eight-member panel - to be called the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission - that would review claims from inmates who say they are innocent.
The panel's membership would include a prosecutor, a defense attorney, a sheriff and others. Five members would have to agree that a claim has merit in order to send it to a special three-judge tribunal, which would hold a hearing to determine if the inmate is innocent.
A unanimous vote of the tribunal could set the inmate free.
Although the commission and the tribunal would have significant power, they would be limited to considering cases from inmates who pleaded not guilty and who say they are completely innocent.
"The idea is not to look at technical questions, the idea is not to look at procedural questions but to look at those few cases where there is a credible claim of factual, actual innocence," said Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland, a sponsor of the legislation.
The proposal for the innocence commission has been largely dormant since last August, when the N.C. House endorsed the idea 80-23.
But a Senate judiciary committee endorsed it on a voice vote yesterday, and the bill could go before the full Senate on Monday. It would then have only a few hurdles before becoming law.
With fresh memories of Hunt's case and similar ones from around the state and country, a diverse coalition of groups is supporting the idea of the innocence commission. The groups argue that having an innocent person in prison serves the interests of no one.
"Our job is not to see how many we can convict. We're more interested in justice," said Eddie Caldwell, a lobbyist for the N.C. Sheriffs' Association.
"If an innocent person has been wrongfully convicted, law enforcement has two interests," Caldwell said. "Law enforcement is interested in having that person's name cleared, and No. 2, if the wrong person is in jail, we need to go find the real criminal."
Modeled after a similar system in the United Kingdom, the innocence commission would be the first of its kind in the United States. It was just one of the recommendations of a commission set up by former N.C. Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr.
Now retired, Lake continues to push for the innocence commission, and he met with legislators yesterday. He said that he's concerned about how the public views the criminal justice system after cases such as Hunt's.
"They have been few, but they have been high-profile," Lake said. "And whenever you hold an innocent man in prison for a number of years, it gives the whole system a black eye."
In November 2003, an eight-part series in the Winston-Salem Journal documented flaws in the case against Darryl Hunt, showing that police used questionable tactics and witnesses to focus on him as a suspect in the killing of Deborah Sykes, a newspaper copy editor. The series explained how authorities changed their theory of the crime once DNA evidence in 1994 showed that Hunt had not raped Sykes.
Hunt was freed on Dec. 24, 2003, after DNA testing in the Sykes case pointed to Willard Brown, who pleaded guilty in Sykes' death a year later.
State legislators have already voted to appropriate money for the innocence commission. This year's state budget includes $50,579 to help set it up and $160,134 for the first six months of salary for a three-member support staff.
The proposal could still get caught up by some details in the legislation. Prosecutors, sheriffs and others persuaded Senate supporters of the bill to prohibit the commission from considering claims by people who pleaded guilty, even if they did so as part of a plea agreement.
"If a defendant shows up in front of a court of law and says, 'I did it,' we don't think they should be able to stand up and say, 'I didn't do it,'" said Peg Dorer, the director of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys.
Dick Taylor, the chief executive of the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers, said that some innocent defendants decide to plead guilty rather than "roll the dice" with a jury.
"There are a number of people who for various reasons plead guilty to something they didn't do," Taylor said. "If you have irrefutable evidence of actual innocence, even if there's a guilty plea, the innocence commission should be able to look at it."