Sunday, April 18, 2004
Gov. Mike Easley did the right thing Thursday in granting Darryl Hunt a pardon of innocence in the 1984 murder of Deborah Sykes. Easley, a former prosecutor and attorney general, now needs to take a hard look at the troubled criminal-justice system in this state that wronged Hunt and continues to wrong others.
Hunt's case underscores just how wrong the system can go. He spent more than 18 years in prison before DNA testing finally led to a new suspect this winter who said he acted alone in the murder and rape of Sykes in downtown Winston-Salem. That man remained free for much of the time Hunt was in prison.
Easley's exoneration paves the way for Hunt to apply to the state for $20,000 for each year he spent in prison. As Hunt goes on with his life, the governor should move on with criminal-justice reform, a job he is uniquely qualified for. Besides the Hunt case, there have been other high-profile cases in the past few years that have underscored the flawed system, the most notable of these being the Alan Gell case in Bertie County.
Gell spent more than four years on Death Row for a murder that he was finally acquitted of this winter after a second trial. During his first trial, while Easley was attorney general, prosecutors withheld witness statements from defense attorneys that might well have proven Gell's innocence. Those prosecutors were with the attorney general's office and worked under Easley. He had no direct involvement with the case, but the buck stopped with him.
Yet Easley recently said he was unfamiliar with the details of that case. It's time for the governor to study that case and others. And it's time for him to listen to a growing chorus statewide calling for criminal-justice reform. Among those voices are Hunt and Gell, who spoke together at Wake Forest University last week. "They had, right in front of them, a whole lot of evidence that I hadn't done the crime," Gell said of the prosecutors at his original trial.
In the wake of the Gell case, Easley has joined Attorney General Roy Cooper in calling for prosecutors to open death-penalty files to defense attorneys to avoid wrongful convictions. Much more is needed.
For one thing, Easley needs to pardon Gell, once Gell applies for that pardon. And although Easley has said this state doesn't need a moratorium on the death penalty, he should reconsider. He should call for a two-year moratorium to allow time for studying the issue, and he should call for a study of other ways of improving the justice system.
The clock is ticking on Easley's term, and he faces a re-election fight. A start at justice reform would be a strong legacy for this man who has already shown his commitment to justice.