A Charlotte (North Carolina) News & Observer inves­tiga­tive series about the death penal­ty found that pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct led to a num­ber of North Carolina cap­i­tal con­vic­tions being over­turned, and that more cas­es are cur­rent­ly under review due to ques­tions of improp­er behav­ior by the state. The series not­ed that pros­e­cu­tors who have with­held evi­dence often receive no sig­nif­i­cant pun­ish­ment. Among the cas­es high­light­ed in the report were the following:

  • Alan Gell was sen­tenced to death in 1998. Four years lat­er, a Superior Court judge ruled that the state Attorney General’s Office with­held wit­ness state­ments indi­cat­ing that Gell could not have com­mit­ted the mur­der because he was in jail. They also failed to reveal a tape record­ing of the state’s star wit­ness say­ing she had ​“to make up a sto­ry” to tell police.
  • Jerry Lee Hamilton was sen­tenced to death in 1997. He won a new tri­al in April 2003 because pros­e­cu­tors and police with­held a doc­u­ment under­min­ing the cred­i­bil­i­ty of the state’s sole wit­ness, Hamilton’s nephew, who had ini­tial­ly con­fessed to com­mit­ting the murder alone.
  • Jonathan Hoffman’s lawyers have filed an appeal main­tain­ing that pros­e­cu­tors in Union County hid deals with the state’s star wit­ness. The wit­ness’s tes­ti­mo­ny result­ed in a cut in his prison time by at least 15 years and put sev­er­al thou­sand dol­lars into his pocket.
  • Charles Munsey won a new tri­al in 1999 after his attor­neys dis­cov­ered that the Wilkes County District Attorney with­held evi­dence that the state’s star wit­ness, a jail­house infor­mant, was nev­er in the prison where Munsey sup­pos­ed­ly con­fessed to him. Munsey died in prison before he received a new trial.

These cas­es and oth­ers like them have led many North Carolinians, includ­ing for­mer Superior Court Judge Tom Ross, who reversed Munsey’s con­vic­tion, to ques­tion the fair­ness of the state’s death penal­ty sys­tem. Ross notes, ​“From my per­spec­tive as a lawyer and judge, the adver­sar­i­al sys­tem has got­ten to the point where win­ning is more impor­tant than jus­tice.” (News & Observer, November 2, 2003) See Innocence and Prosecutorial Misconduct.

Citation Guide