"DEAVER, WHO HAS WORKED WITH THE SBI SINCE 1985 AND IS CERTIFIED AS A COURT EXPERT IN SEROLOGY, NOW WORKS AS A CRIMINAL SPECIALIST IN THE SBI'S TRAINING AND INVESTIGATIVE SUPPORT DIVISION. HE WAS ACCUSED OF MISLEADING JURORS ABOUT THE PRESENCE OF BLOOD IN A 1993 DEATH PENALTY CASE AGAINST GEORGE GOODE. A FEDERAL JUDGE LATER VACATED THE DEATH SENTENCE."
WRAL: LOCAL NEWS;
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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. During several days of testimony, a parade of witnesses poked holes in the original evidence against Taylor. A SBI agent testified that while initial tests on some items from Taylor's sport utility vehicle were positive for blood, follow-up tests were negative. Those negative tests were not revealed to the jury that convicted Taylor. A dog training expert testified that the bloodhound that investigators said found the scent of the victim on Taylor's SUV was not trained in scent identification. A jailhouse snitch who said that Taylor confessed his involvement in Thomas's killing to him stood by his original testimony, but did admit that Taylor got the method of killing wrong. Johnny Beck, the man who was in Taylor's SUV on the night of the murder, testified neither he nor Taylor were involved in Thomas's death. 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.
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"Raleigh, N.C. — Past policies of the State Bureau of Investigation fell short in uncovering the truth in the murder trial of Gregory Taylor, the agency's director said Friday, two days after new evidence helped exonerate Taylor," WRAL'S disturbing story begins, under the heading "Past SBI crime lab policy called into question."
"Taylor, 47, was convicted of murder in 1993 but freed Wednesday after new evidence proved he did not kill a woman and leave her body in a Raleigh cul-de-sac," the story, published on February 19, 2010, continues.
"Part of the evidence had to do with blood test results that were excluded from lab reports presented at trial.
SBI agent Duane Deaver testified that it was SBI policy to report that evidence showed an indication for the presence of blood, even when secondary tests to confirm were negative.
He left those results in his bench notes and didn't tell the prosecutor, he said, although he would have explained if he had testified.
SBI Director Robin Pendergraft said Friday that the agency never withheld the evidence but admits some wasn't shared.
"The practice then was not a good practice of not sharing all the information," Pendergraft said. "That's not been the practice we've been engaged in for the past several years."
Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby, who argued against Taylor's release this week, said the information could have changed the verdict in the murder trial.
"I think we were blissfully ignorant that there was information out there that we should have asked for," he said.
State statute now requires the SBI and other law enforcement to turn over all notes and that all information is shared with both the prosecution and defense. Pendergraft said the advancement of DNA technology also makes evidence far more accurate.
Unlike the Taylor case, she points out SBI testing often frees the wrongly accused.
Deaver, who has worked with the SBI since 1985 and is certified as a court expert in serology, now works as a criminal specialist in the SBI's training and investigative support division.
He was accused of misleading jurors about the presence of blood in a 1993 death penalty case against George Goode. A federal judge later vacated the death sentence.
Pendergraft says if other SBI cases are questioned, the agency will investigate accordingly."
The story can be found at:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/7084085/
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
