Darryl Hunt Research Paper

Darryl Hunt worked at a local news department in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. On April 10, 1984, Deborah Sykes was found killed and raped. Deborah Sykes was a co worker of Darryl Hunt’s, he claimed they had never talked really while he had worked there. The man who found her dead, called 911 and introduced himself as Sammy Mitchell, although the man was actually John Gray( Innocent Project). The police questioned John Gray and had him do a line up, to find the man he saw with Deborah Sykes. At first John identified a man who was in jail at the time, which police knew the man could not of done it for he was behind bars.( Innocent Project).
A local man had then also came in and said he had seen a black man with Deborah Sykes then. The cops also had him do a line up to find the man, the first time he went, he choose Darryl Hunt. The police then questioned Darryl Hunt, Hunt claimed he was home with
Hunt was given a chance to plead guilty and then just serve 5 years. He refused for he knew he did not commit the crime and would not let Deborah Sykes death land on his shoulders. He was put through a second trial which was held in Catawba County in front of an all white jury. This time two jail informants claimed that Hunt plead guilty to them, Hunt was sentenced again in prison for life (Innocent Project).
While this was going on, Darryl Hunt’s original lawyer Mark Rabil was working with some scientist to figure out if the DNA inside of Deborah Sykes and on the crime scene, was Darryl Hunt’s or some other gentleman’s. The DNA result came back and the DNA that was found at the crime scene, did not match Darryl Hunt’s DNA at all (Innocent Project). Although the proof was there, Darryl Hunt’s appeal for trial was rejected by the court, because the people believed that even with that evidence it still didn’t prove Darryl Hunt