Post-conviction process on verge of overhaul

  RALEIGH (AP) – Lesly Jean served a decade of jail time for a rape committed by another man.
  Four witnesses testified in his defense and the Camp Lejeune Marine appealed his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. His lawyers struggled to get DNA testing.
  But no one listened.
  Now, the state lawmaker who worked as Jean’s attor*ney for nine years is close to winning passage of drastic re*forms to North Carolina’s post-conviction process. “The whole thing taught me im*mense lessons about the hu*man frailty of the system,” Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumber*land, said in a recent inter*v i ew.
  The General Assembly is on the brink of approving a bill that would create a state Innocence Commission, mak*ing North Carolina the first state in the nation with a judi*cial body charged solely with identifying wrongful convic*tions. Separate measures that would set up such a commis*sion gained approval in both the House and Senate and are now in conference committee, where lawmakers are trying to resolve differences.
  Jean’s 2001 exoneration of the rape of a Jacksonville woman was one of several high-profile conviction rever*sals that captured public at*tention during the first half of this decade.
  Others included the freeing in late 2003 of Darryl Hunt, convicted of a 1984 Winston- Salem murder but exonerated by DNA evidence. Hunt was later pardoned by Gov. Mike E a s l ey.
  And in 2004, a jury acquit*ted Alan Gell, a death row in*mate who was retried for the 1995 killing of Bertie County man after it was revealed prosecutors withheld key evi*dence that would have helped his defense.
  “Despite the best efforts of everyone, there are going to be mistakes,” Glazier said. “We have to make sure we have a fail-safe in the system to deal with those rare cases where someone is actually innocent. We have to restore the public’s confidence in the system.” Former N.C. Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr. formed a coalition in 2002 to study and recommend reforms aimed at preventing wrongful convic*tions. That group recommend*ed creation of a legal authority capable of investigating cases of declared factual innocence.
  Under the proposal now be*ing considered by state law*makers, an eight-member committee – including a judge, a prosecutor and a defense at*torney – would analyze credi*ble claims based on new evi*dence that was not considered at trial. A majority vote of five of the eight panel members would require the state’s chief justice to appoint three judges to look at the case.
  That panel would have to unanimously agree that there was “clear and convincing ev*idence” of innocence before a prisoner could be set free.
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