“The Trials of Darryl Hunt”

Marissa Bonito
CRJ 425
Tuesday/Thursday 3:05-4:20
March 31, 2015

On September 11, 1984 Darryl Hunt was arrested for the rape and murder of Debora Sykes. The police received a tip from a 911 phone call from a man named Johnny Gray. At the time of the call Mr. Gray claimed to be Sammy Mitchell, who was well known by the police and prosecutors. Don Tisdale the district attorney on the case prosecuted Sammy Mitchell numerous times, and saw Darryl as a young version of him. The first time Mr. Hunt was picked up by the police he claimed his innocence and cooperated with them. Later Darryl stated that the D.A. offered him $12,000 to say Sammy Mitchell committed the murder, and promised all charges against him would be dropped. If Mr. Hunt refused Tisdale said he would seek the death penalty in his case. Darryl refused to turn his friend in, and was charge with the rape and murder of Sykes even though there was no physical evidence linking him to this case. His charges were based on the 911 phone call, and an ID made by a previous Klan member Thomas Murphy. During this time Hunt met a man named Larry Little. Mr. Little started independently investigating Darryl’s case because he felt there was no way Darryl could commit this brutal crime. After talking to people in the neighborhood Larry soon learned that Johnny Gray was known as a shady and unreliable source. Little brought this to the attention of defense attorneys Mark Rabil and Larry Gordon. The defense argued their case to the court, but it did not help. On August 10, 1984 Darryl Hunt was convicted by an all-white jury and sentence to life in prison. In 1990 six years later, the court gave Darryl a new trial based on new evidence. Hunt was released on $50,000 bond, and represented by a new defense James Ferguson. Prosecutors Dean Bowman and Jimmy Yates offered a plea bargain to Mr. Hunt of second degree murder, and time served. Darryl Hunt clung to his innocence and refused the offer. Darryl was convicted again by an all-white jury for the rape and murder of Debora Sykes. Next the defense hired a private investigator Richard McGough, and the court order the release of the State Bureau Investigating Report. It soon became clear that witnesses for the defense were intimidated by officers, evidence was withheld, and the DNA evidence that prosecutors claimed was no good, was actually perfectly fine to test. On October 22, 1993 Judge Morgan ordered that the DNA testing be done which in turn excluded Darryl Hunt for the rape and murder of Debora Sykes. Even though the DNA results proved his innocence Judge Morgan ruled that this did not indicate that Darryl wasn’t at the crime scene, and denied motion for a new trial. On December 20, 1994 in a split decision the State Supreme Court denied Mr. Hunt a new trial, and in October 2000 the United States Supreme Court denied request for a new trial as well. This was the only case in the United States where DNA evidence did not release a person from prison or give them a new trial. Three years later a reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal began investigating the case. During her research she came across another case that was very similar to Debora Sykes the only difference was the female victim ended up escaping her attacker. The suspect in that case was a man named Willard Brown. Several months later the defense received a cold hit through the DNA database. On December 19, 2003 the DNA evidence was matched to career criminal Willard Brown. While being arrested by the police Mr. Brown confessed to the rape and murder of Sykes and apologized to Darryl Hunt. Later the defense learned that the police destroyed evidence after Darryl’s second appeal. On December 24, 2003 after almost twenty years in prison Darryl Hunt was finally released. On February 6, 2004, Supreme Court Judge Anderson Cromer dismissed the conviction against Hunt with prejudice.
There are several strengths in the documentary “The Trials of Darryl Hunt.” The film focused on the pain and suffering that one man endured over twenty years in prison while maintaining his innocence. It also showed the compassion and struggles his defense attorney faced along the way. The documentary films the final breaking point of defense attorney Mark Rabil as he’s seen crying after receiving a devastating phone call stating that the State Supreme Court denied Hunt a new trial. In many cases it is rare to see a defense attorney become so emotionally attached to their client. The only weakness I saw in the documentary is the brief mentions of corruptions within the police and prosecution. I believe they should have went into greater detail to let the people see and understand how much evidence they tried to cover up.
Many of us are naive to believe that race no longer exist in our criminal justice system. Darryl Hunt is not the only black man to be accused of a crime that he did not commit. In 1979 James Newsome was charged with armed robbery, and murder of a white proprietor of a grocery store in Chicago. The prosecutors did not find any physical evidence at the crime scene, and his fingerprints were not found on any items that the killer touched in the store. Mr. Newsome had a strong alibi, but three witnesses identified him as the killer. Similar to Darryl Hunt, James Newsome was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to life in prison. After fifteen years in prison AFIS compared the fingerprint found at the crime scene and identified another man as the killer (Chapter 5, slide 5). Between the years 1995 and 2000 studies concluded that race revealed a direct or contextual impact during sentencing. Sweeny and Haney developed a meta-analysis of a mock trial from 1970 to 1991. The study showed that mock jurors tended to sentence African American defendants more harshly than white defendants. There is evidence that proves direct effects of racial discrimination in incarceration decisions against African Americans (Chapter 7, slides 6, 7, and 8). Rachlinski conducted a study regarding judges prospective of race and ethnicity in sentencing. The study consisted of 128 judges from three different jurisdictions. Each judge was asked to answer the question whether they associate good or bad stereotypes with White or African American faces. The study found that seventy-four percent of eight-five White judges and fourteen percent of forty-three Black judges had a White preference. Like most individuals judges “harbor implicit racial bias” (Chapter 7, slide 11). Race and ethnicity may be conditioned by or interact with the victims race and ethnicity to affect sentencing outcomes, and differential treatment of interracial sexual assault. A study conducted in Detroit between 1970 and 1984 concluded that blacks received longer sentencing for Black on White sexual assault crimes, and shorter sentencing for Black on Black sexual assault crimes (Spohn and Spears, 1996). The most severe sentencing length is Black on White crimes between two strangers. It has been twelve years since Darryl Hunt was released from prison. Through these years we have taken small steps to try and eliminate racism in the criminal justice system. Research shows that prosecutors are making a commitment to try and reform our system and implement extreme levels of fairness.