"BUT WHAT IS WORSE IS THIS COLD FACT: TAYLOR'S ATTORNEYS EXPOSED AN SBI AGENT WHO, FOLLOWING AGENCY PRACTICE, DID NOT DISCLOSE ON A REPORT THAT A FOLLOWUP TEST SHOWED A KEY PIECE OF EVIDENCE - A SUBSTANCE FOUND ON TAYLOR'S TRUCK FENDER - WAS NOT BLOOD. JURORS WHO CONVICTED TAYLOR WERE TOLD THAT IT WAS BLOOD, AND THAT EVIDENCE WAS CRUCIAL TO THE STATE'S CASE - ITS BOGUS CASE, AS IT TURNS OUT."
EDITORIAL: THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER; Wikipedia informs us that "The Charlotte Observer, serving Charlotte, North Carolina and its metro area, is the largest newspaper, in terms of circulation, in North and South Carolina.[citation needed] It is owned by The McClatchy Company."
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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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"North Carolina can't buy back the 17 years of life it robbed from Greg Taylor when a flawed prosecution theory, an unethical SBI practice and a lying jailhouse snitch combined to put him away for a murder he could not have committed," the Charlotte Observer editorial published earlier today begins, under the heading, "N.C. cannot pardon its unpardonable mistake: Taking 17 years of Greg Taylor's life can't be fixed at any price."
"This we know because the N.C. Innocence Commission, and a three-judge panel, and now the Raleigh police have shown what Greg Taylor has said all along: He was innocent, railroaded into prison for someone else's crime," the editorial continues.
"The latest evidence came from Raleigh police, who even after Taylor was set free were still examining his clothes for some remnant of DNA evidence that might tie him to the 1993 death of Jacquetta Thomas. She was beaten and left for dead in a Raleigh cul de sac, and the police still don't have any idea who committed the murder.
One thing is certain: It was not Greg Taylor. There was not a shred of DNA evidence tying him to the victim, and Gov. Bev Perdue waited on the test results to be sure. Then she pardoned Taylor last week, making him eligible for a $750,000 payment from the state to help make up for its monumental mistake.
Perdue's pardon is appropriate, of course, as is the payment. But even if the payment were 10 times the size, it could not make up for missed birthdays of his daughter, missed holidays and all the time Taylor spent in prison while the world went on without him.
But what is worse is this cold fact: Taylor's attorneys exposed an SBI agent who, following agency practice, did not disclose on a report that a followup test showed a key piece of evidence - a substance found on Taylor's truck fender - was not blood. Jurors who convicted Taylor were told that it was blood, and that evidence was crucial to the state's case - its bogus case, as it turns out.
Here's another chilling fact: Someone else killed Jacquetta Thomas, and that person may still be free. He or she may be in prison for another crime, or may be dead. No one knows. We do know the real killer has never been punished, never even been pursued for this crime.
If there's any good news from this sad episode, it is that North Carolina had the good sense to create a way to determine if it made a mistake - and how to correct it.
If there's an appropriate way to make it up to Greg Taylor for taking away more than one-third of his life, it might be finding the killer - and building a persuasive case for conviction that will stand up to a close inspection. The conviction of Greg Taylor fell to pieces when experts put it under a microscope, and that ought to scare the daylights out of all of us."
The editorial can be found at:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/05/27/1460324/nc-cannot-pardon-its-unpardonable.html
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;