Judicial system faces scrutiny

Legal observers probably would say justice was served after three men received a death sentence and three life sentences for murder and rape in North Carolina.

But lawyers said it represents a serious problem when the three men spend a combined 48 years behind bars -- and are later released after courts determine that the evidence used to prosecute them was flawed.

"I am certain that there are many more innocent people behind bars," said Roy Trest, an attorney in Brunswick County.

Alan Gell, Darryl Hunt and Sylvester Smith are three of a growing number of inmates who were wrongly convicted in North Carolina -- and freed when new evidence surfaced years after their trials:

Gell was freed from death row in February after 10 years and given a new trial when a judge ruled that prosecutors withheld key evidence during his 1995 trial in the murder of Allen Ray Jenkins. The prosecutors have since been reprimanded.

Hunt served about 18 years of a life sentence for a crime he always denied committing. In December 2003, Willard Brown confessed to the 1984 rape and murder of Deborah Sykes after DNA testing linked him to the crime.

Smith was freed Nov. 5 after 20 years, when the two children who accused him of raping them recanted their testimony and implicated a family member. Smith received three life sentences based primarily on the testimony of a 4-year-old girl and her 6-year-old cousin.

Rich Rosen, professor of law at UNC, said officials are aware that people are incarcerated based on misidentifications.

"That is the single greatest factor to wrongful prosecutions," he said. "The DNA cases have convinced us. ... We want to lessen the number of times in the future."

On the national level, there have been 117 people exonerated from death row since 1973 because DNA testing showed them to be innocent, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

But the process is slow, and attorneys are inundated with letters from inmates proclaiming innocence.

"The legal system never changes overnight," Rosen said. "It is a problem for the entire system. But we're seeing the beginnings of change."

Wrongful convictions also are being blamed on lawyers who lack training in capital punishment cases.

"One of the biggest problems is poor lawyering," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the DPIC. "That results in things not being caught."

N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverly Lake formed the N.C. Actual Innocence Commission in February 2003 to recommend solutions to the problems.

The group comprises legislators, judges, prosecutors, police officers and law professors who review how innocent people are convicted and how to free them when it happens.

"We have looked at pretrial identification procedures," said Rosen, a member of the commission. "We have made recommendations to a number of police departments."

As of Monday, there were 36,292 inmates behind bars and 183 on death row in the state, according to the N.C. Department of Correction Web site.

A number of innocent people get convicted, Rosen said. But there is no way to determine how many people actually are innocent without scientific proof.

Attorneys also are concerned about prosecutors relying on children to testify in many capital cases.

Edwin Colfax, executive director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law, said the legal system needs revamping when it comes to interrogating children.

"Child witnesses are problematic. There are major problems with them being manipulated."

In the Smith case, the girls' grandmother, who is now deceased, was covering up for her grandson and coaxed the girls into implicating Smith.

"The main villain is no longer here to be prosecuted," said Trest, Smith's attorney. "Any time you rely on children's testimony, everyone should look at it with a critical eye."

Trest said the jurors who convicted Smith were convinced by the girls' testimony.

"There is such an emotional reaction when sex crimes and kids are involved," he said.

"The system doesn't work perfectly. But there is a quest to seek the truth."

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.