SHAWN MASSEY; MISINTERPRETED "CORNROWS" LED TO WRONGFUL CONVICTION; 12 YEARS BEHIND BARS; DUKE STUDENTS PLAY ROLE IN EXONERATION; CHARLOTTE OBSERVER;

"MASSEY JOINS A HOST OF NORTH CAROLINIANS WRONGLY SENT TO PRISON WHEN VICTIMS CROSS RACIAL LINES TO IDENTIFY THE MEN WHO HURT THEM. OFTEN, THESE IDENTIFICATIONS PROVE UNRELIABLE BECAUSE VICTIMS MUST DESCRIBE FEATURES UNFAMILIAR TO THEM. MAKING IDENTIFICATION ACROSS RACIAL LINES HAS BECOME A RED FLAG FOR LAWYERS WHO EXAMINE CLAIMS OF INNOCENCE. A MECKLENBURG COUNTY JURY CONVICTED MASSEY OF KIDNAPPING AND ARMED ROBBERY IN 1999. THE ROBBERY VICTIM, SAMANTHA WOOD, TOLD POLICE HER ATTACKER HAD BRAIDS. WHEN SHOWN A PHOTO OF MASSEY, HIS HAIR CUT SHORT AND TIDY, WOOD, WHO IS WHITE, HESITATED BEFORE TELLING POLICE THAT HE LOOKED LIKE HER ROBBER EXCEPT FOR HIS LACK OF BRAIDS. MOMENTS BEFORE TRIAL BEGAN, WOOD EXPRESSED DOUBTS AGAIN, THIS TIME TO THE PROSECUTOR."

REPORTER MANDY LOCKE; CHARLOTTE OBSERVER;

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"DURHAM If a team of white Charlotte police officers and prosecutors had understood more about African-American hairstyles in 1999, Shawn Massey would probably have spent the past 12 years watching his son grow up," the Charlotte Observer story by reporter Mandy Locke begins, under the heading, "Hairstyle had role in false verdict: Duke law students find Charlotte man couldn't have been robber who had his hair braided."

"But it took a cadre of Duke University law students and black barber instructors to prove that Massey wasn't - and couldn't have been - the robber who held a Charlotte mother and her two children captive in 1998," the story continues.

""My hair won't even grow like that. It will get nappy, but it won't grow like that," Massey told a crowd of reporters and law students Thursday, not three weeks after his release from prison.

Massey joins a host of North Carolinians wrongly sent to prison when victims cross racial lines to identify the men who hurt them. Often, these identifications prove unreliable because victims must describe features unfamiliar to them. Making identification across racial lines has become a red flag for lawyers who examine claims of innocence.

A Mecklenburg County jury convicted Massey of kidnapping and armed robbery in 1999. The robbery victim, Samantha Wood, told police her attacker had braids. When shown a photo of Massey, his hair cut short and tidy, Wood, who is white, hesitated before telling police that he looked like her robber except for his lack of braids. Moments before trial began, Wood expressed doubts again, this time to the prosecutor.

Wood's word was the only evidence against Massey.

Mecklenburg County District Attorney Peter Gilchrist said this month that Massey should have been told of the victim's doubts. Gilchrist, a veteran prosecutor who has announced plans to retire, asked a judge this month to vacate charges against Massey. Gilchrist then dismissed the charges, conceding that a new trial would probably result in Massey's acquittal.

Hair was central to Massey's journey - both into prison and now back home.

Police and prosecutors incorrectly assumed that Wood was describing braids that began at the nape and extended down the back of the robber's neck. When police arrested Massey, he had short, tidy hair. Police assumed he had snipped the braids.

Last fall, Duke students and staff tracked Wood down in Florida and asked her to explain the braids she saw. They mailed her photos of men with cornrows for confirmation. They also had collected photos of Massey from those years with the same short hairstyle he sports today.

Students interviewed barbers about the intricacies of growing cornrows. They explained that a man's hair must first grow out before they can style cornrows. Students used this, and photos of Massey's hair in the late 1990s, to make their case to Gilchrist that Massey wasn't their man."

The story can be found at:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/05/28/1463175/hairstyle-had-role-in-false-verdict.html

Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;