The North Carolina State bar has rep­ri­mand­ed two for­mer assis­tant attor­ney gen­er­als for with­hold­ing evi­dence that could have pre­vent­ed the wrong­ful con­vic­tion of Alan Gell, who was final­ly freed from death row in 2004 (pic­tured). The State Bar pan­el found that pros­e­cu­tors David Hoke and Debra Graves failed to turn over evi­dence to Gell, did not ade­quate­ly super­vise the con­duct of their chief inves­ti­ga­tor for the case, and brought the judi­cial sys­tem into dis­re­pute by their con­duct. Hoke and Graves received a writ­ten rep­ri­mand for their behav­ior, which the pan­el found to be unin­ten­tion­al. Gell, who spent nine years in jail and half of those on death row, won a new tri­al in 2002 on the basis of the with­held evi­dence. Among the evi­dence pros­e­cu­tors failed to dis­close were state­ments of peo­ple who saw the vic­tim, Allen Ray Jenkins, alive after Gell had been jailed for vehi­cle theft and could not have com­mit­ted the crime, as well as a taped con­ver­sa­tion of the state’s star wit­ness say­ing she had to ​“make up a sto­ry” for police. With the new evi­dence that had sur­faced, Gell’s 2004 retri­al end­ed in a quick acquit­tal. Hoke con­tin­ues to serve as the No.2 state admin­is­tra­tor in the state court sys­tem, and Graves now works as an assis­tant fed­er­al pub­lic defend­er. (News Observer, September 25, 2004). See Innocence.

Citation Guide