"IT CORRECTS A TERRIBLE ERROR THE STATE MADE IN 1993 WHEN A WAKE COUNTY JURY CONVICTED TAYLOR OF KILLING JOQUETTA THOMAS IN SOUTHEAST RALEIGH. WAKE SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE HOWARD MANNING, WHO CHAIRED A PANEL THAT INCLUDED MECKLENBURG SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE CALVIN MURPHY AND SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE TANYA WALLACE OF ROCKINGHAM, SAID TAYLOR "HAS PROVED BY CLEAR AND CONVINCING EVIDENCE" THAT HE IS INNOCENT. THE STANDARD OF PROOF, HE NOTED, REQUIRED "CREDIBLE, VERIFIABLE EVIDENCE OF INNOCENCE THAT HAS NOT PREVIOUSLY BEEN PRESENTED.
IT EXPOSES AN INCREDIBLY SLOPPY POLICE INVESTIGATION OF THE MURDER, A BADLY HANDLED PROSECUTION CASE THAT IGNORED COMMON SENSE AND AN INCOMPETENT DEFENSE THAT FAILED TO INVESTIGATE THE FLAWED EVIDENCE PROSECUTORS USED TO CONVICT TAYLOR.
IT CONFIRMS THE WISDOM OF FORMER N.C. SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE BEVERLY LAKE IN COMMISSIONING A STUDY OF WHETHER THE STATE SHOULD CREATE A FORMAL PROCESS TO HEAR CREDIBLE CASES OF ACTUAL INNOCENCE FROM PRISON INMATES. THE LEGISLATURE LATER CREATED THE INNOCENCE INQUIRY COMMISSION, THE FIRST OF ITS TYPE IN THE NATION, TO CONSIDER SUCH CASES. SADLY, THERE HAVE BEEN TOO MANY CASES OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS IN THIS STATE."
EDITORIAL: THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER;
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BACKGROUND: Seventeen years ago, Taylor was convicted of the September, 1991 murder of Raleigh prostitute Jacquetta Thomas, 26, whose body was found dumped on South Blount Street in Raleigh. Taylor, 47, said he spent the night of September 25, 1991 drinking and doing drugs with friends while he drove around southeast Raleigh to buy crack cocaine. Taylor said he believed police latched on to him for the murder because he and a friend drove along a dirt path off the same cul-de-sac where Thomas's body was found. Taylor and the friend smoked crack, but his SUV got stuck as they tried to drive away. They abandoned the SUV and walked to a nearby street to get a ride. Taylor testified they saw what they thought was a body but didn't report it to police. When Taylor returned in the morning to get the SUV, the police were already there. Taylor had exhausted his appeals, but the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission reviewed the evidence against him last year and recommended the case to the three judge panel for further review. The commission is the only state-run agency in the country that investigates claims of innocence. Now the Commission has declared him innocent - the first time an inmate has been freed through the actions of the state's Innocence Inquiry Commission.
"The decision by a three-judge panel exonerating Greg Taylor in a 1991 murder for which he spent 17 years in prison was a dramatic moment in N.C. legal history. It's notable for several things," the Charlotte Observer editorial, published on February 18, 2010, begins.
"It corrects a terrible error the state made in 1993 when a Wake County jury convicted Taylor of killing Joquetta Thomas in southeast Raleigh," the editorial continues.
"Wake Superior Court Judge Howard Manning, who chaired a panel that included Mecklenburg Superior Court Judge Calvin Murphy and Superior Court Judge Tanya Wallace of Rockingham, said Taylor "has proved by clear and convincing evidence" that he is innocent. The standard of proof, he noted, required "credible, verifiable evidence of innocence that has not previously been presented."
It exposes an incredibly sloppy police investigation of the murder, a badly handled prosecution case that ignored common sense and an incompetent defense that failed to investigate the flawed evidence prosecutors used to convict Taylor.
It confirms the wisdom of former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverly Lake in commissioning a study of whether the state should create a formal process to hear credible cases of actual innocence from prison inmates. The legislature later created the Innocence Inquiry Commission, the first of its type in the nation, to consider such cases. Sadly, there have been too many cases of wrongful convictions in this state.
It creates a new problem for state investigators and prosecutors. Greg Taylor did not kill Thomas - but who did? It's possible her killer is still out on the streets nearly two decades after her brutal death. Prosecutors should reopen the case.
But this much is clear: Taylor did not commit the crime. Under the statute creating the Innocence Inquiry Commission, a panel of eight members must first review a case and decide whether there's a high probability that an inmate can demonstrate innocence. In some cases DNA evidence may prove innocence on the spot.
In Taylor's case, an adversarial hearing before a special session of Superior Court judges for the past week sorted through the case before Manning announced their decision in a packed courtroom at Campbell University's law school in Raleigh. Their decision is persuasive because legislators wisely set the standard for proof of innocence high. Among other things, that standard will help ensure public confidence that those freed under the process really are innocent.
That any state in America would need such a process is discouraging. But the cases of Darryl Hunt, Dwayne Dail, Ronald Cotton and now Greg Taylor - all of whom spent many years in prison but who have since been judged innocent - cried out for a formal process to guide this state's criminal justice system in correcting old errors.
That North Carolina was willing to review old cases and set them aright is, in the end, a powerful message that the state will try to do the right thing. When Joquetta Thomas's killer is apprehended, that message will be fulfilled."
The editorial can be found at:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/125/story/1254978.html
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com
