Innocence Blog

'Tar Heel of the Year' fights to free the innocent

Posted: January 2, 2008 3:28 pm

For six years, North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence Director Christine Mumma worked on the case of Dwayne Dail, a man serving time in prison for a crime he said he didn’t commit. Finally, in August, her hard work led to the DNA testing that exonerated Dail, freeing him from prison after 19 years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit.
 
The News & Observer newspaper named Mumma its 2007 “Tar Heel of the Year” this week for her commitment to freeing the innocent and reforming North Carolina’s criminal justice system.

"There have been many prominent people who have strengthened the system," said former state Supreme Court Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr., for whom Mumma clerked in the late 1990s. "Chris has gone beyond that, being innovative and willing to look at the process objectively and being willing to change it."

Read the full story here. (News & Observer, 12/30/07)