N.C. Gov. Sets Up Innocence Commission
By GARY D. ROBERTSON
The Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Inmates in North Carolina who claim they were wrongly
convicted got a new avenue of appeal Thursday as Gov. Mike Easley
signed a law creating a state innocence commission described as the
first of its kind in the nation.
The commission, modeled after one in the United Kingdom, was created
after several high-profile convictions were overturned in North
Carolina.
The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission will review innocence
claims from people who can present new evidence that hasn't been
considered in court.
The eight-member commission will begin accepting claims in November. If
five or more commission members agree there is enough evidence of
potential innocence, the case would be sent to a panel of three
Superior Court judges. Overturning a conviction would require a
unanimous decision by the three judges.
Easley, a former prosecutor and attorney general, said North Carolina
residents should be proud of the commission.
"Its creation gives our criminal justice system yet another safeguard
by helping ensure that the people in our prisons in fact, belong
there," Easley said in a statement after signing the bill without a
public ceremony.
Among the high-profile cases of wrongful conviction was that of Darryl
Hunt, who served 18 years in prison for the 1984 murder of a
Winston-Salem newspaper employee before he was exonerated in 2003 by
DNA evidence. Easley later pardoned him. In 2004, Alan Gell, a onetime
death row inmate, was retried and acquitted in a 1995 killing after it
was revealed prosecutors withheld key evidence.
While other states have created panels to improve legal procedures to
reduce the likelihood of wrongful conviction, North Carolina's
commission will consider individual cases.
"It is the first of its kind in the nation," said Eric Ferrero with the
Innocence Project, a New York-based legal clinic that handles cases
where DNA testing can lead to overturning a conviction.
Convicts who pleaded guilty in their original cases will not be
eligible to submit their claims for two years. After that time, the
eight-member commission would have to agree unanimously to send the
case to the judges' panel.
The North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys had objected to
that provision because people who pleaded guilty in court can now
proclaim their innocence. Garry Frank, the group's president, said it
was "kind of making a mockery of the system."
The legislation allows the commission to hear claims filed through
2010, after which the law that created it would have to be renewed.