Murder Charge Vacated For N.C. Man Freed After New DNA Tests

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A state judge in Winston-Salem today threw out all charges against a man who spent 18 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit.

Judge Anderson Cromer dismissed the charges against Darryl Hunt. He’s the man who was convicted twice and imprisoned for the 1984 murder of Deborah Sykes, a copy editor for the now-closed Winston-Salem Sentinel.

Cromer says Hunt also was a victim of the case, along with the victim, her husband, and her mother.

The same judge ordered Hunt released from prison after an emergency hearing on Christmas Eve. Hunt has been free on bond until today’s hearing.

Cromer says separate juries that twice convicted Hunt in 1985 and 1990 didn’t have before them the information available now.

Willard Brown was charged with murder, rape, kidnapping and armed robbery days before Hunt’s release.

The DNA in a semen sample taken from Sykes matched Brown’s DNA and he was arrested while in the Forsyth County jail on another charge.

While I’m sure this opened up old wounds for the husband and mother, my opinion is that the worst wounds are being opened up by our legal system, not the innocent man or even the perpetrator (who was allowed to walk free for years after committing this crime). No, DNA evidence wasn’t available in 1985 or 1990, but whatever happened to “beyond a reasonable doubt”? This case clearly shows that it isn’t guilt or innocence that determine the verdict — it’s the lawyer who shows the most compelling case to the jury.