April 27, 2004

North Carolina

By Chip Womick, The Courier-Tribune

ASHEBORO - Darryl Hunt and Alan Gell, who spent a combined 28 years in
prison for murders they did not commit, asked about 100 people in Asheboro
Monday night to support a two-year moratorium on the death penalty in
North Carolina.

During the moratorium, a commission would study how the death penalty
system works in the state and suggest changes, if needed, to ensure that
it delivers justice.

Hunt and Gell were characterized as "living, breathing proof" a moratorium
is needed.

"Even if there's just one person on death row that's innocent, just one,
that should be enough to take a look at the system," said Hunt. "... It's
on everybody's hands if we execute somebody who's innocent."

Gell asked those in attendance to contact their legislators about a
proposed moratorium. To those who support the death penalty, Gell pointed
out that a moratorium would not end executions, but that a close
examination of how the system works might ensure "that it's being given
out fairly."

Hunt, Gell and attorney Mary Pollard spoke at The Exchange on South
Fayetteville Street during a forum to provide information about how the
death penalty is implemented in the Tar Heel State.

North Carolina has nearly 200 inmates on death row.

Last year, the N.C. Senate passed a bill calling for establishment of a
two-year moratorium on executions in North Carolina so a study commission
can dissect the system and determine if changes are needed. The N.C. House
is expected to take up the issue this spring.

Rep. Arlie Culp of Ramseur, District 67, attended the forum. Culp stood to
speak briefly before the meeting ended.

"This goes back to the wheel that squeaks gets the grease," he said. "You
need to let your legislators know how you feel. You need to dispel the
notion that this is a way to get rid of the death penalty - it's not. I've
got the feeling that the moratorium would pass (the House) if we could
hear from enough people."

Pollard was working for a Raleigh law firm, handling civil litigation,
when an appellate attorney called and asked her if she would help handle a
post-conviction death penalty appeal. After initially saying no, she was
convinced to handle the case. Her client was Alan Gell.

"Never in a million years did I expect that we would be appointed to
represent an innocent man," she said, "but that's exactly what happened."

She said the most shocking and eye-opening thing about her involvement
with Gell's case was to discover how easy it was to convict an innocent
man and sentence him to death - and how hard it was to get that decision
reversed.

In the process of helping Gell win a new trial, and his freedom, Pollard
said she learned about other death row inmates whose cases concerned her.

In making a case for a moratorium on executions in North Carolina, Pollard
offered an array of facts and figures which she said suggest areas to
study if the state's death penalty system is scrutinized by an appointed
commission.

"I don't care if you support the death penalty or oppose it," she said.
"Learn the facts. Make an educated decision."

Among the information Pollard provided:

* Prosecutors in rural counties usually pursue capital punishment more
aggressively. As an example, she said that Mecklenburg County, with more
than 600,000 residents, has 10 prisoners on death row, while the
prosecutorial district of Bertie, Northampton and Hertford counties, with
a combined population of about 65,000, has eight death row prisoners.

* In North Carolina, the killer of a white person is 3.5 times more likely
to be sentenced to die.

* Of 541 murders in North Carolina in 2002, 34 of the defendants faced
capital punishment. Seven of those received the death penalty; five of the
seven were African American. "There's no logical connection between those
murders and the seven guys who wound up on death row," she said. "... It's
like a lottery."

* A 1999 poll of police chiefs showed that two out of three did not think
the death penalty was an important tool.

Gell, 29, got out of jail in February when a jury unanimously decided that
he was not guilty of a 1995 shotgun slaying in eastern North Carolina
which sent him to prison for nine years, five of those on death row. At
Gell's first trial, prosecutors withheld evidence from the jury that
likely would have resulted in Gell going free - the same evidence that set
him free this year in a new trial. The key prosecution witness said in a
secretly taped conversation that she "had to make up a story" about the
murder. Also, 17 witnesses told investigators that they saw the victim
alive after the only time Gell could have committed the crime.

Hunt, 39, spent 19 years in prison, convicted at two separate trials of
the 1984 murder of Deborah Sykes. He was freed last December after DNA
evidence linked another man to the rape and murder. Actually, DNA evidence
had shown in 1994 that Hunt did not rape Sykes, but he remained in prison.
Hunt was given a pardon of innocence by Gov. Mike Easley earlier this
month.

According to Hunt and Pollard, a prosecutor in Hunt's case wrote a memo
before his trial saying there was not much of a case. Still, the
prosecution sought the death penalty. Save for the vote of a single juror,
Hunt would have been sentenced to death. And, he said Monday, it's likely
that he would have been executed long before the evidence came to light
that set him free.

"I was lucky," he said.

In a brief interview before the forum, Hunt suggested one way to make the
death penalty system work better. "One of the main things is the mentality
of the prosecutors - not to just want to win a case. That's where the
problems start to be biased - we're going to win at any cost."

Hunt said he plans to keep working toward a death penalty moratorium,
while he works part-time and goes to college.

Gell said he is working part-time for his stepfather's construction
company. He also wants to traverse the state, talking to schoolchildren
about drugs. He admits that he was selling illegal drugs when he was
charged with murder.

He said he wants to tell middle schoolers what he's already told football
players at N.C. State University. "I put myself in a position to be blamed
for a murder. My lifestyle allowed a finger to be pointed at me."

His primary mission, however, is to lobby for the moratorium on executions.

"I'm a more mature person, but I'm also a sadder person," he said. "My
eyes were opened to things that I didn't even dream existed. ... There's
no way to get out of prison and go on with your life and ignore what we've
seen."

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Source : Courier-Tribune News