Exoneration of Darryl Hunt and Two Death Penalty Reversals by North Carolina Supreme Court Prompt Calls for Moratorium on Executions
For more information contact Janet Moore, NC Coalition for a Moratorium
828-232-2588
WINSTON-SALEM, NC – Today’s exoneration of Darryl Hunt, who spent nearly two decades in prison for crimes he did not commit, is the latest compelling evidence that North Carolina needs a temporary suspension of executions, according to a broad coalition of organizations and citizens supporting a moratorium. Mistakes made by police, prosecutors, and judges kept Hunt in prison and the real killer on the streets for almost two decades. Hunt likely would have been executed by now if he had been sentenced to death.
Also today, in opinions authored by Republican Justices, the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed two death sentences. The Court ordered a new trial for Parish Lorenzo Matthews and a new sentencing hearing for Michael Eric Maske. In the Maske case, Republican Justice Ed Brady wrote a concurrence in which he laments the high number of mistakes made in capital trials and the resultant significant drain on both the courts’ time and the State’s finances. Justice Brady acknowledges mounting criticism regarding the flaws in our capital punishment system and related calls for a moratorium, and further acknowledges that such concerns must be directed to the legislature. (concurrence attached)
“Historically, our General Assembly has shown strong leadership in enacting reforms needed to ensure a fair, reliable criminal justice system,” said Janet Moore, spokesperson for the North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium. “Flaws in that system are costly to everyone involved -- victims, defendants and their families bear the worst costs. In Darryl Hunt’s case, a man lost 18 years of freedom. We must identify and correct those flaws; we cannot accept or condone them.”
Last year the North Carolina Senate passed a bill that would impose a temporary halt to executions while a study commission reviews the flaws in our capital punishment system and makes recommendations of how to reduce the risk of wrongful convictions. The State House will consider the bill in the upcoming session.
“The Darryl Hunt case and the candid views expressed in Justice Brady’s concurrent opinion illustrate why such a diverse group of North Carolinians, including many who support capital punishment, is now calling on our lawmakers to enact a moratorium to examine our death penalty system,” said Duke Law Professor Jim Coleman. “The errors in the Hunt case and in the case in which Justice Brady concurred were not inadvertent. That is the tragedy; they could have been prevented.”
Twenty-one local governments, more than 1000 businesses, congregations, civic groups and organizations, and more than 40,000 North Carolinians have signed moratorium petitions. Every major newspaper in North Carolina and numerous smaller papers have endorsed a moratorium. Nine former North Carolina Supreme Court Justices have endorsed the moratorium, joining many other prominent North Carolinians such as Dean Smith, Herb Sendek, James F. Goodmon, Charles A. Sanders, and L.M. “Bud” Baker.
Innocent people have been sentenced to death
in North Carolina. Alan Gell and Jerry Hamilton were
recently awarded new trials because the state withheld evidence that points
to their innocence; Gell’s re-trial is currently underway in Bertie County. Charles Munsey was also awarded a new trial because prosecutors
withheld evidence of his innocence; another man who confessed to acting
alone was later convicted of the murder. Alfred Rivera and Tim Hennis were
both sentenced to death but acquitted in retrials.