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NC Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Committed to ending the death penalty and creating a new vision of justice

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Darryl Hunt

Learn more: Death is far more expensive than life

NC Exoneree Darryl Hunt
Darryl Hunt doing one of many media interviews in his work to end the death penalty.

Because of a single juror, Darryl Hunt was spared the death penalty for a rape and murder he did not commit. He was not spared, however, from 19 years in prison — ten of those after DNA evidence showed he was innocent.

In August 1984, Darryl Hunt was an impoverished teenager in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, when police scooped him up and put him in a lineup. A 25-year-old newspaper copy editor, Deborah Sykes, had been raped and stabbed to death while on her way to work. The killing of a young white woman sparked community outrage, and police were eager to make an arrest.

A witness came forward to say he’d seen Ms. Sykes with a black man on the morning of the crime, and he picked Darryl from the lineup. Police lineups often lead to mistaken identifications and wrongful convictions, especially when they are cross-racial. In the years since Darryl’s arrest and conviction, North Carolina lawmakers have passed reforms outlining strict protocols for police lineups. In Darryl’s case, however, a faulty police lineup led to two decades of wrongful incarceration.

At his 1985 trial, the main evidence tying Darryl to the crime was the mistaken testimony of people who said they had seen him with Ms. Sykes on the morning of her murder. Another witness said they saw Darryl at a hotel disposing of bloody towels, an assertion that was simply false. Darryl’s girlfriend testified that he had confessed to her, but the jury was unaware that she faced her own prosecution on larceny charges and hoped her testimony against Darryl would result in lighter punishment. Later, she recanted her testimony against Darryl.

Facing the death penalty, Darryl testified that he did not know Deborah Sykes and had no involvement with the crime. The jury convicted Darryl, but a single juror refused to vote for the death penalty. In North Carolina, a death sentence cannot be imposed unless the jury is unanimous. Darryl was sentenced to life in prison.

In 1989, Darryl’s conviction was overturned because it relied on his girlfriend’s recanted statements. Prosecutors offered Darryl a deal. He could be freed by pleading guilty and accepting a sentence of the five years he had already served, but he refused to admit to a crime he did not commit. Darryl was retried for murder and again sentenced to life in prison.

In 1994, scientific advances allowed for DNA testing, which revealed that the DNA of the rapist did not match Darryl’s. In a hearing about the newly discovered DNA, the state changed its story, now insisting another man raped Ms. Sykes but Darryl killed her. The judge ruled in the prosecution’s favor, saying the DNA evidence did not prove his innocence. Darryl remained in prison for another decade.

In 2004, after immense public pressure, the state finally ran the crime scene DNA through a database of people convicted of felonies and found a perfect match — a man who had committed a similar rape just months after Deborah Sykes’ murder. Willard Brown confessed, and Darryl was finally freed. That same year, Darryl received a rare pardon of innocence from the governor.

Darryl spent 19 years in prison after a conviction based on mistaken identification and recanted testimony.

Darryl spent 15 years in prison after his conviction was overturned and he refused a plea deal that would have allowed him to go home.

Darryl spent 10 years in prison after DNA evidence proved he had not assaulted Ms. Sykes.

Between his date of conviction and date of exoneration, 29 people were executed in North Carolina.

Darryl on the day of his exoneration in 2004. Photo by Ted Richardson

Darryl spent the rest of his life advocating to end capital punishment and ensure that no more innocent people get the death penalty in North Carolina. “If I had gotten a death sentence,” he said, “there’s no doubt in my mind I would have been executed.” He founded the Darryl Hunt Project for Freedom and Justice, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for the wrongfully convicted supporting people recently released from prison.

Darryl died in 2016. He was 51. In 2022, investigative reporter Phoebe Zerwick published Beyond Innocence: The Life Sentence of Darryl Hunt, an in-depth book about Darryl’s life and death.

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On this Juneteenth we invite you to learn about an On this Juneteenth we invite you to learn about and advocate for #EndTheException, a campaign of @worthrises, to pass the Abolition Amendment. 

People who are incarcerated and detained across our country are disproportioately Black and Brown and forced to work for pennies an hour to no pay at all under the threat of additional punitive measures, such as the loss of family visits and solitary confinement.
Ten years ago today, nine Black worshippers were m Ten years ago today, nine Black worshippers were murdered during a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Ten years. A measure of time that cannot touch the grief or honor the grace of those left behind.

We remember the names of those whose lives were taken: Cynthia Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Rev. Clementa Pickney, Tywanza Sanders, Rev. Daniel Simmons, Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson.

Among those grieving is our friend and fierce partner in this work, Rev. Sharon Risher, who lost family and friends on that day. In the decade since, Rev. Risher has spoken the unspeakable aloud on stages, in sanctuaries, and on pages inked with her truth. Her book, For Such a Time as This: Hope and Forgiveness after the Charleston Massacre, does not simplify the complexity of grief or forgiveness. Instead, she invites us to hold them both, trembling, in our hands.

Last year, Rev. Risher joined us in North Carolina and offered a living example of how to walk through fire and still find language for love. She continues to teach us what it means to mourn collectively, to resist hate, to believe that justice without compassion is incomplete. Rev. Risher is a powerful advocate for gun violence prevention and abolishing the death penalty.

This piece from USA Today traces what ten years have – and haven’t – changed (link also in bio): https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/06/16/charleston-black-church-emanuel-massacre-anniversary/84186073007/?fbclid

Today we honor the lives lost, the families forever changed, and the communities that carry their memory. And we give thanks for people like Rev. Risher, who show us again and again that remembrance is a sacred act and love is a kind of protest too.

(Photos of Rev. Risher speaking at last year’s NCCADP commemoration of 18 years since North Carolina’s last execution.)
🏳️‍🌈 This Pride Month (and always), we'r 🏳️‍🌈 This Pride Month (and always), we're telling it like it is: the death penalty targets LGBTQ+ people.

In courtrooms, LGBTQ+ identity can be twisted into a weapon and used against defendants. In prisons, gender identity is ignored and essential care denied.

Swipe through to learn more and read our full blog post to see how these issues show up in North Carolina and why there is no justice in a system that punishes people for who they are. Then join us in building a future rooted in dignity, humanity, equity, and life.

📖 Link in bio to read.

#PrideMonth #LGBTQJustice #EndTheDeathPenalty #NCCADP #TransRights #JusticeForAll #NoMoreDeathRow #AbolitionNow
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