Sunday, February 8, 2004
There were lots of tears in a packed courtroom Friday as Darryl Hunt was exonerated in the 1984 murder of Deborah Sykes. Hunt, who spent more than 18 years in prison for the crime, cried tears of joy as Superior Court Judge Anderson Cromer dismissed the murder conviction against him. Evelyn Jefferson, Sykes' mother, cried tears of sadness over her daughter's death and outrage at Cromer's decision. And Cromer said that the legal system cries out for justice when mistakes are made.
The Hunt case underscores just how imperfect that system can be, and how damaging errors can be to defendants, victims and their families, and communities. Now, this community must begin the hard job of putting this case behind it. It must also be on guard against other injustices that can cause individual and community damage and danger, ones that imprison the innocent and let killers roam free.
Sykes was white and Hunt is black, and the case has divided the races here. Blacks have long charged that Hunt was railroaded and have fought for his release, and only in recent weeks did more than a few whites join their fight. A November series in the Journal detailed problems in the case, including mistakes and questionable witnesses.
Finally, in December, testing matched DNA from Sykes with 43-year-old Willard E. Brown, a black man. Brown told detectives he acted alone in Sykes' murder, and that admission, plus the DNA testing, led to his being charged in Sykes' murder and Hunt's being cleared Friday. Investigators testified that it was clear that Brown acted alone. District Attorney Tom Keith agreed, joined the defense in asking that the conviction be vacated, but stopped short of apologizing to Hunt.
Defense attorney Mark Rabil praised the work done by law-enforcement officers in recent weeks to confirm that Brown acted alone. Keith led Winston-Salem police officers in that effort.
Keith, however, had maintained that Hunt was guilty until December. Prosecutors before him also maintained that guilt, as had police. Their bungling of this case not only wronged Hunt; it also left Brown free for much of 20 years - when he wasn't in jail for other crimes.
The mishandling of the case also aggravated Jefferson's pain over the loss of her daughter. She stood in the courtroom Friday, stared straight at Hunt and said that she still thinks he is guilty in her daughter's death. For years, police and prosecutors told her that Hunt was guilty. Quite understandably, she cannot shake that notion.
A few minutes after she spoke, Hunt addressed the court, then Jefferson. "People talk about closure, but there will never be closure, because you lost your daughter," he said.
The community, however, can learn from the case and move forward. The Committee on Racial Healing, formed because of the case, is already meeting. Pat Norris, who becomes the new police chief next month, says she wants to work at building trust between the department and the community and ease tensions left by the Hunt case.
Hunt is cleared. There is more hard work ahead.