Darryl Hunt

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Darryl Hunt is an African-American man from Winston-Salem, North Carolina who was wrongfully convicted in 1984 of the rape and murder of a young newspaper reporter, Deborah Sykes, but was later exonerated by DNA evidence. He had served 18 years in prison before he was freed after review and exoneration.

A modern cause célèbre, his case was said to have "helped define race relations in Winston-Salem for 20 years" [1].

Darryl Hunt is now involved in the Innocence Project.

In December 2005, an independent film, "The Trials of Darryl Hunt", was named a Sundance Film Festival selection, and will premiere in early 2006. The film documents in its own words "the story [of the brutal rape and murder] in the American South, and offers a deeply personal story of a wrongfully convicted man, Darryl Hunt, who spent twenty years in prison for a crime he did not commit."

History of the Case - (From "Trials of Darryl Hunt"[2])

"Base[d] on an ID made by a former Klan member, a 19-year-old black man, Darryl Hunt, was charged. No physical evidence linked Hunt to the crime. Hunt was convicted by an all white jury, and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1994, DNA testing cleared Hunt, yet he would spend another ten years behind bars."