Darryl Hunt

I went to a movie last night in Durham sponsored by University of North Carolina Death Penalty Project and the Conference on Race, Class, Gender, and Ethnicity. The documentary, The Trials of Darryl Hunt, is the story of his arrest in 1984 for the murder and rape of a young woman in Winston-Salem NC, his re-trials, appeals and incarceration for nineteen and one-half years until his release from prison and exoneration by a NC Superior Court Judge in February of 2004. He was nineteen years old when he was arrested and thirty-eight when he was set free for a crime that he did not commit.

In two different trials (1984 and 1990), all white juries convicted him of the crime and he was sentenced to life in prison. In 1994 DNA evidence showed that he could not have been the attacker. Still the judge who reviewed the appeal ruled that this was not enough evidence to warrant a new trial. The appeal of that decision to the North Carolina State Supreme Court was a 4-3 agreement with the lower court ruling. Darryl remained in prison. Then in 2000 his attorneys submitted an appeal for a new trial to the United States Supreme Court. Result: Denied. It was not until December of 2003, when another man, Willard E. Brown, confessed to the gruesome rape and murder and the prosecutor’s office turned over evidence it had unlawfully withheld from the defense, that the man who from day one had maintained his innocence was to be set free.

At the end of the viewing, Darryl and his appeals attorney sat in front of us and answered questions. It was a humbling experience for me to be with them in a small crowd of eager law students. The answer from Darryl that most opened my heart was to the question by the moderator: What would you say to us in closing?

Darryl said: Well a few things. First, treat other people the way you want to treated. And help those who are less fortunate than you.

How about we do that today?

Peace always

Paula

Please google Darryl Hunt to read his story, better yet…see the movie.