"THE STATE HAS SET THE PAYOUT AT $750,000 — THE MOST IT CAN AWARD HIM. YET IT’S FAR FROM A DONE DEAL. IN ORDER TO QUALIFY, GOV. BEV PERDUE FIRST MUST ISSUE A PARDON. WITHOUT ONE, TAYLOR CAN’T APPLY FOR THE MONEY. QUESTIONED FOLLOWING HIS EXONERATION BY THE ACTUAL INNOCENCE COMMISSION, THE GOVERNOR AGREED THAT THE STATE SHOULD PROVIDE MONEY FOR TIME LOST. SHE TOLD THE NEWS & OBSERVER OF RALEIGH, “THE MAN WAS DONE WRONG AND THE STATE AND COUNTRY HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO RIGHT THAT WRONG.” ADDING, “YOU COULDN’T SELL ME 17 YEARS OF MY LIFE FOR $800,000.”
EDITORIAL: GREENSBORO NEWS RECORD;
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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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"The state has released Greg Taylor from prison after he served 17 years for a crime he didn’t commit, but its obligation to him hasn’t been fulfilled," the News Record editorial, published on March 12, 2010, under the heading "Give Taylor what he’s due," begins.
"There’s the matter of compensating him with hard cash for the more than 6,000 days he spent behind bars, away from family and friends — all the time knowing he was innocent," the editorial continues.
"The state has set the payout at $750,000 — the most it can award him. Yet it’s far from a done deal.
In order to qualify, Gov. Bev Perdue first must issue a pardon. Without one, Taylor can’t apply for the money.
Questioned following his exoneration by the Actual Innocence Commission, the governor agreed that the state should provide money for time lost.
She told The News & Observer of Raleigh, “The man was done wrong and the state and country have a responsibility to right that wrong.”
Adding, “You couldn’t sell me 17 years of my life for $800,000.”
Perdue, however, didn’t commit to a pardon, saying she hadn’t yet received Taylor’s request.
But the power to grant financial awards to the wrongly convicted should rest with the innocence commission itself, not the governor.
Granting money for past injustices ought to be separate and apart from issuing a pardon, which restores citizen rights forfeited upon conviction of certain crimes. Governors should continue to have that responsibility.
In a sense, the three-judge commission is a work in progress, and Taylor’s was its first high-profile appeal. Adjustments still can be made.
When it convenes, the General Assembly should give the first-in-the-nation panel the authority to make such grants swiftly and fairly, based on particulars of each case.
As for a pardon, the governor should grant it, just as predecessor Mike Easley did in the case of Winston-Salem’s Darryl Hunt, who was wrongly convicted of rape and murder."
THE EDITORIAL CAN BE FOUND AT:
http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/03/11/article/editorial_give_taylor_what_he_s_due
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
