TRIALS OF DARRYL HUNT, THE (TV)
Summary
This televised documentary film depicts the twenty-year struggle to overturn the wrongful rape and murder conviction of Darryl Hunt of North Carolina. The story begins in Winston-Salem on August 10, 1984, when 25-year-old newspaper copy-editor Deborah Sykes is found murdered, having been assaulted and stabbed to death. A police phone recording of a witness identifying himself as Sammy Mitchell is used to track down and arrest 19-year-old Hunt, who denies the charge. He is appointed a defense attorney, Mark Rabil, who is aware that his very first murder case is fraught with racial tension, as Sykes was white and Hunt black. City alderman Larry Little, who knew Hunt prior to the case, worries that he is being made into a scapegoat for someone else's crime, growing more suspicious when the preliminary DNA evidence does not match. Rabil explains that Mitchell was in fact Hunt's best friend at the time and had a long history of crime, and Hunt explains that they were both questioned and that when he himself heard the tape of the call, he was sure that it was not actually Mitchell speaking. District attorney Donald Tisdale states that Mitchell is a regular "fixture" of the NC justice system and Hunt his protégé, and Rabil is stunned to hear that Tisdale offered Hunt $12,000 to finger Mitchell, regardless of whether or not he was truly guilty.
Hunt refuses to lie despite the potential of his ending up on death row, and Little explains that the call was really placed by the "shady" Johnny Gray. Little secretly recorded a conversation with Gray in which he indirectly admitted to falsely using Mitchell's name, and Little rallies the community, speaking out about the growing injustice. An all-white jury is selected for the trial and the prosecution calls a series of questionable witnesses, including a Klansman and a teenage sex worker with a history of mental illness, and defense attorney Gordon Jenkins explains how the lineup was irresponsibly conducted, with Gray going so far as to select two different people. Little's associate Khalid Griggs calls the trial a "bad comedy," but Hunt is found guilty despite the very shaky evidence and sentenced to life imprisonment. Little and the rest of the black community react with anger, and Tisdale loses the black vote and the next election. Money is raised through a defense fund for Hunt's appeal, and in 1990 he is released on bond and stays at Griggs' home, where he meets and soon falls in love with his adult stepdaughter, April. The new prosecutor Dean Bowman offers Hunt a deal in which he pleads guilty to murder two and accepts a sentence of time served, but Hunt declines it despite Little's pleas, stating that he is entirely innocent.
Another white jury is assembled and the defense attempts to discredit the unreliable Gray, though the prosecution then digs up another Klansman who claims that he heard Hunt confess. Little expresses his frustration at the media's lack of coverage of the story, and Bowman states that he is following his own "moral conviction." Rather than building a case on the facts, Bowman uses emotion and describes Sykes' last moments in extremely graphic terms to elicit the jury's sympathy, and Hunt is found guilty again. Rabil resolves to find the true murderer and finds evidence of witness intimidation, and in 1993 Ben Dowling-Sendor joins the team as the appellate attorney. Two acquaintances of Gray's state that he made comments claiming responsibility for Sykes' murder, and Dowling-Sendor finds that the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) had far more evidence than they let on, including DNA evidence which was not, as they claimed, too degraded to test. The judge rules against both the claim of witness tampering and of the "hidden" SBI evidence, but does order the DNA tested. In October 1993, the DNA is definitively found not to match Hunt's, and Rabil is elated, assuming that he must now be freed. A.D.A. Eric Saunders calls his innocence "inconceivable," however, stating that Hunt must have been one of two assailants. Rabil is surprised when both Mitchell and Gray are also deemed innocent by the DNA, though Sykes' mother Evelyn Jefferson speaks out strongly against a third trial. Rabil happily tells Hunt that he will likely be released soon, but the judge rules against him yet again, stating that the case is only "somewhat weakened" by the DNA and Hunt could still theoretically be guilty. Everyone is upset, with Dowling-Sendor declaring that Hunt has been "judicially lynched," though Hunt states that he is now used to being "discarded."
Rabil vows to keep fighting, though they suffer yet another setback in December 1994 when the North Carolina Supreme Court rules against them 4-3. Little declares that his conscience would not allow him to simply give up, and Hunt explains how the skinheads and the prison guards have threatened him, believing that he is guilty. In October 2000 the United States Supreme Court denies their motion for a new appeal, despite having released many other prisoners because of DNA evidence, though Hunt gains some happiness when April assures him that she will stick by him and the two are married in a prison ceremony. In 2003, Rabil begins searching the huge national database for a "cold hit" DNA match, while elsewhere Phoebe Zerwick of the Winston-Salem Journal spends several months doing research and then writes a eight-part series of articles about the case, clearly presenting the evidence and the many inconsistencies, and many more people begin rallying on Hunt's side. Zerwick then learns about another rape a month after Sykes' in which the woman escaped, though the man accused, Willard Brown, was apparently in prison at the time of Sykes' death and was never considered a suspect. In December, however, Rabil is again thrilled to hear that the DNA does in fact match Brown's, though Little refuses to get his hopes up again.
Brown then confesses to Sykes' murder, and Rabil finds that he was actually released from prison in June 1984 and that the police not only failed to reveal this at the time, but also intimidated Brown's other victim into not pressing charges and had her evidence destroyed. D.A. Tom Keith tries to arrange a deal and delays Hunt's release, but Little issues a frank public statement pointing out the many injustices of the past nineteen years and demanding his immediate freedom, and Hunt is finally released on the 24th. He is not officially exonerated, however, and is called before a judge yet again in February 2004. Rabil makes his final argument and Jefferson again states her belief in Hunt's guilt, but Hunt tearfully states that he is innocent and has waited many years to be freed. The judge dismisses his case with prejudice, and everyone reacts with joy and relief. In a recording from 1984, Hunt tells the police that he wants only to live a "decent life," and the film closes by explaining that he was awarded a large monetary settlement from the state and now runs a foundation to help release other wrongfully-convicted prisoners. Rabil is now an assistant Capital Defender and Little a lawyer and political science professor; Gray died in prison after being convicted of another murder, and Brown is serving life plus ten years. The Winston-Salem police declined to be interviewed for the film.
Details
- NETWORK: HBO
- DATE: April 26, 2007 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:46:34
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:92264
- GENRE: Documentary
- SUBJECT HEADING: Documentary; Legal system and the courts; Racism
- SERIES RUN: HBO - TV, 2007
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Sheila Nevins … Executive Producer
- Ricki Stern … Executive Producer, Director, Writer
- Annie Sundberg … Executive Producer, Director, Writer
- Nancy Abraham … Supervising Producer
- Katie Brown … Producer
- William Rexer II … Producer
- Paul Brill … Music by
- Darryl Hunt … Interviewee
- Mark Rabil … Interviewee
- Gordon Jenkins … Interviewee
- Larry Little … Interviewee
- Sammy Mitchell … Interviewee
- Donald Tisdale … Interviewee
- Khalid Griggs … Interviewee
- April Hunt … Interviewee
- Ben Dowling-Sendor … Interviewee
- Phoebe Zerwick … Interviewee
- Evelyn Jefferson
- Deborah Sykes
- Johnny Gray
- Dean Bowman
- Eric Saunders
- Willard E. Brown
- Tom Keith