Post by Planet Asia on Jan 8, 2006 16:31:04 GMT -5
Man falsely convicted in newspaper employee's slaying receives pardon in North Carolina
A man who served 18 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit has been pardoned by the North Carolina governor and could be eligible for $360,000 in compensation.
"I'm ecstatic about the pardon and I'm very thankful to the governor ... and all the people who supported me," Darryl Hunt said Friday, the day after Gov. Mike Easley issued the pardon.
Hunt was twice convicted of the 1984 murder of Deborah Sykes, who was raped and killed as she walked to her job as a copy editor at the now-defunct Winston-Salem Sentinel.
He was freed in December, after serving 18 years of a life sentence, when DNA evidence led police to another man, who confessed to the killing and said he acted alone. A judge vacated the charges against Hunt in February.
Easley said in a brief statement that he gave the case "careful, extensive review and consideration."
Hunt's attorneys asked Easley almost eight weeks ago to issue a "pardon of innocence." People receiving a pardon of innocence are allowed to apply to the state Industrial Commission for $20,000 in compensation for each year they are imprisoned.
Hunt, 39, said he has used his time since his release from prison in December speaking out against capital punishment and starting on what he hopes will be a career helping others.
He is studying at Winston-Salem State University and wants to eventually work with children and former inmates, he said. The state settlement money will help him pay for his schooling and the house he and his wife, April, hope to buy.
Through two trials and several hearings over nearly two decades, Hunt's supporters had accused police and prosecutors of railroading him with questionable witnesses and no physical evidence.
Three witnesses said they saw the attack, but only one identified the killer as Hunt, and that witness did so only after initially identifying the attacker as someone else who was in jail at the time.
Other witnesses said they saw a white woman and two black men in the area just before the attack. One identified one of the men as Hunt. Another said he was not wearing his contact lenses that morning and initially could not identify either man, but later testified that one of the men looked like Hunt.
Hunt's girlfriend once told police she had seen him the morning of the murder with grass stains on his pants, but later recanted.
Evelyn Jefferson, Sykes' mother, said she still believes that Hunt was somehow involved in her daughter's death despite the DNA evidence.
"I actually thought Governor Easley was more intelligent than that," she told the Winston-Salem Journal from her home outside Chattanooga, Tenn.
Hunt was freed Dec. 24 after DNA testing in the Sykes' case identified the new suspect, Willard Brown. Brown has since been charged with murder, rape, kidnapping and robbery. No court date has been set for Brown, who is being held without bond.
Since he became governor in 2001, Easley has received five requests for a "pardon of innocence." He had granted only one before Thursday, to Lesly Jean, a former U.S. Marine who was convicted in 1982 of raping a Jacksonville woman. Jean, like Hunt, was cleared by DNA testing.
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/16/national1213EDT0549.DTL
A man who served 18 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit has been pardoned by the North Carolina governor and could be eligible for $360,000 in compensation.
"I'm ecstatic about the pardon and I'm very thankful to the governor ... and all the people who supported me," Darryl Hunt said Friday, the day after Gov. Mike Easley issued the pardon.
Hunt was twice convicted of the 1984 murder of Deborah Sykes, who was raped and killed as she walked to her job as a copy editor at the now-defunct Winston-Salem Sentinel.
He was freed in December, after serving 18 years of a life sentence, when DNA evidence led police to another man, who confessed to the killing and said he acted alone. A judge vacated the charges against Hunt in February.
Easley said in a brief statement that he gave the case "careful, extensive review and consideration."
Hunt's attorneys asked Easley almost eight weeks ago to issue a "pardon of innocence." People receiving a pardon of innocence are allowed to apply to the state Industrial Commission for $20,000 in compensation for each year they are imprisoned.
Hunt, 39, said he has used his time since his release from prison in December speaking out against capital punishment and starting on what he hopes will be a career helping others.
He is studying at Winston-Salem State University and wants to eventually work with children and former inmates, he said. The state settlement money will help him pay for his schooling and the house he and his wife, April, hope to buy.
Through two trials and several hearings over nearly two decades, Hunt's supporters had accused police and prosecutors of railroading him with questionable witnesses and no physical evidence.
Three witnesses said they saw the attack, but only one identified the killer as Hunt, and that witness did so only after initially identifying the attacker as someone else who was in jail at the time.
Other witnesses said they saw a white woman and two black men in the area just before the attack. One identified one of the men as Hunt. Another said he was not wearing his contact lenses that morning and initially could not identify either man, but later testified that one of the men looked like Hunt.
Hunt's girlfriend once told police she had seen him the morning of the murder with grass stains on his pants, but later recanted.
Evelyn Jefferson, Sykes' mother, said she still believes that Hunt was somehow involved in her daughter's death despite the DNA evidence.
"I actually thought Governor Easley was more intelligent than that," she told the Winston-Salem Journal from her home outside Chattanooga, Tenn.
Hunt was freed Dec. 24 after DNA testing in the Sykes' case identified the new suspect, Willard Brown. Brown has since been charged with murder, rape, kidnapping and robbery. No court date has been set for Brown, who is being held without bond.
Since he became governor in 2001, Easley has received five requests for a "pardon of innocence." He had granted only one before Thursday, to Lesly Jean, a former U.S. Marine who was convicted in 1982 of raping a Jacksonville woman. Jean, like Hunt, was cleared by DNA testing.
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/16/national1213EDT0549.DTL
