Editorial: Pressing for justice

North Carolinians have been up in arms about a court order that threatened to release dozens of convicted murderers and rapists after serving only 30 years of their life sentences.

In addition to keeping the guilty behind bars, fair-minded citizens should also be passionate about freeing the innocent. It's in their interest to follow the work of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission.

This week in Raleigh, a three-judge panel is hearing the case of Greg Taylor, 47, of Cary. Taylor has been in prison almost 17 years for a murder he says he didn't commit — the beating death of a prostitute whose body was found near his abandoned car.

The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission pressed for this hearing after putting Taylor's case through a rigorous screening process. The commission's staff reviews public records and court records, conducts field investigations, contacts witnesses, evaluates new evidence and takes a case through a formal inquiry and a commission hearing before it can go to a three-judge panel — the stage where Taylor's case is now. The burden is on Taylor's lawyers to prove his innocence by clear and convincing evidence.

The General Assembly established the Innocence Inquiry Commission in 2006, making North Carolina the first state to create such an agency to investigate post-conviction claims of actual innocence — providing "an independent and balanced truth-seeking forum," according to its Web site. Rowan District Attorney Bill Kenerly is among the commission's eight members.

The commission has been busy. Since 2007, it has fielded contacts about 634 cases, rejecting 463, reports the Innocence Commission Web site. It has 97 cases under review, six under investigation and three in the formal inquiry phase. This is the third case that has reached the hearing stage.

And it's no slam dunk. Another man has confessed to the murder, but the Wake County district attorney is not convinced. The hearing should be over soon.

The case lacks the drama of DNA evidence that exonerates the wrongly convicted, but it's no less worthy of review. People convicted of crimes always have the option of appeal, but that's a long and expensive process. The Innocence Inquiry Commission is a valuable mechanism for reviewing new evidence and claims of innocence in an impartial way. The state wants justice — not just convictions.