North Carolina is poised to become the first state to estab­lish an Innocence Inquiry Commission that would review inmates’ inno­cence claims. Legislation to cre­ate the pan­el recent­ly passed the state Senate by a vote of 48 – 1, and it passed last year in the House of Representative by a vote of 80 – 23. The leg­is­la­tion now must go before a leg­isla­tive con­fer­ence to rec­on­cile dif­fer­ences between the ver­sions.

The House ver­sion of the bill would estab­lish a per­ma­nent Innocence Commission and allow any­one to ask the com­mis­sion to review a case. If the com­mis­sion finds that inno­cence is like­ly, it would refer the case to a three-judge pan­el for a deci­sion. The three-judge pan­el, cho­sen by the Chief Justice of North Carolina, could estab­lish a find­ing of inno­cence by a 2 – 1 vote of the judges. The case would then be sent to the North Carolina Supreme Court for a final deci­sion. The Senate ver­sion would exclude the con­sid­er­a­tion of inno­cence claims filed by peo­ple who plead­ed guilty. In cas­es where the three-judge pan­el estab­lished inno­cence by a vote of 3 – 0, the Senate ver­sion would allow this vote to bypass fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion by the Supreme Court. It would also estab­lish that the Commission stop accept­ing cas­es after December 31, 2010, unless the leg­is­la­ture votes to renew the project.

Passage of con­fer­ence leg­is­la­tion is expect­ed, and the bill would then be sent to Governor Mike Easley for sig­na­ture into law. According to a state bud­get doc­u­ment, the leg­is­la­ture has allot­ted $210,700 for the com­mis­sion. ​“It’s already in the bud­get, and I think both sides have indi­cat­ed by their over­whelm­ing votes it’s a high pri­or­i­ty,” said State Representative Rick Glazier.

(The Fayetteville Observer, July 13, 2006 and The News & Observer, July 13, 2006). See Innocence and Recent Legislative Activity. UPDATE: Gov. Easley signed into law on August 3, 2006 the bill cre­at­ing N.C.‘s Innocence Commission. The Commission will begin review­ing cas­es on Nov. 1. ​“The eight-mem­ber pan­el will be made up of a judge, pros­e­cu­tor, defense lawyer and oth­ers. Five of the eight mem­bers must agree that a defen­dant deserves judi­cial review. Then a three-judge pan­el must unan­i­mous­ly agree that a defen­dant has pre­sent­ed ​“clear and con­vinc­ing evi­dence” of fac­tu­al inno­cence to be exon­er­at­ed.” (Associated Press, Aug. 3, 2006).

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