North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper is calling on prosecutors to open their files to defense attorneys in first-degree murder cases to avoid wrongful convictions like that of former death row inmate Alan Gell, who was exonerated and freed in February. Cooper called Gell’s first trial a “travesty” and stated that the prosecutors committed “inexcusable neglect” in their handling of the trial. “The original prosecutors in this case owe everyone an apology: the defendant, the victim’s family, the community, and everybody in the state. An unfair trial occurred,” Cooper said. Since Gell’s first trial, the prosecutors, who are under investigation by the State Bar, have gone on to other jobs in the court system. (News & Observer, March 2, 2004) Gell’s exoneration and Cooper’s call for reform of the way first-degree murder trials are conducted comes as members of the North Carolina House of Representatives are considering an historic vote that could halt executions in this closely-watched Southern state. See New Voices and Innocence.