Innocence Blog

North Carolina exoneree calls for a new review of another man's conviction

Posted: April 29, 2008 2:05 pm

Darryl Hunt served 19 years in North Carolina prison for a 1984 rape and murder before DNA testing proved his innocence. Today, he runs the Darryl Hunt Center for Freedom and Justice and travels around the United States speaking about wrongful convictions.Last weekend, he spoke in Fayetteville, North Carolina, at an event organized in support of another man behind bars in North Carolina for a crime he didn’t commit – Lamont McKoy. The North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence is working on McKoy’s case.

“Justice is something you have to demand,” he said, and encouraged McKoy’s friends and family to keep faith.

“In June of 1985, I was one vote away from the death penalty,” he said in his measured, deep voice. “If anybody here doesn’t believe in miracles, I do.”

…McKoy’s mother, Mae Helen McKoy, and his son, 16-year-old Lamont Jr., attended the event.
Mae McKoy said she prays every night for her son, now in his 17th year behind bars.

“It was just wonderful,” she said about the community outpouring Saturday. “It was so fulfilling, I couldn’t even eat. I’m still full from the joy.”

Read the full story here. (Fayetteville Observer, 04/27/08)