news-record.com

When Joseph Abbitt walked out of a Forsyth County courtroom last week as a free man, he joined six other wrongly convicted state prisoners exonerated by DNA evidence. Nationwide, the total is 241 since more sophisticated testing became available.

Witnesses had misidentified three quarters of them, including Abbitt. Honest human error is unavoidable, but how victims are asked to identify suspects, particularly in lineups, often is flawed.

For some, it's a process of elimination. For others, pressure from police to make a choice.

An updated state law requiring that physical evidence be preserved in case new information surfaces is a move in the right direction. But that may be of little comfort to the wrongly convicted denied access to material relevant to an appeal because it has been destroyed or can't be found.

Abbitt's case bears a striking resemblance to those of Darryl Hunt and Ronald Cotton, whose convictions also were overturned. Both were freed after DNA tests showed they couldn't have committed the crimes for which they were imprisoned.

Hunt, of Winston-Salem, served 19 years behind bars for a 1984 murder and rape that he always maintained he didn't commit. In his case, the real perpetrator eventually confessed.

Much the same for Cotton of Mebane, who had served 11 years of a 50-year term. Following a series of frustrating appeals, the verdict was overturned.

The first step to finding delayed justice is admitting mistakes happen. In the aftermath of the high-profile Hunt case, Forsyth District Attorney Tom Keith's office mailed letters to the hundreds of inmates in state prisons from his county advising that they could pursue now-available DNA testing.

Of the responses, only Abbitt's was taken on by the N.C. Center for Actual Innocence, a nonprofit group that helps inmates who believe they were wrongly convicted.

But the job is only half-finished. The person who raped the two teenaged sisters 14 years ago has gone unpunished. There won't be finality until the real perpetrator is caught.

Abbitt, 49, emerged as a reasonable suspect. He'd previously been convicted of a sex-related crime. Circumstantial evidence pointed in his direction. But, in fact, he was innocent.

Justice is an inexact science but more safeguards are needed to see that it isn't compromised. Greater reliance on scientific advances and less-biased suspect identification are good starting points.

As in the cases of Cotton and Hunt before him, the state will compensate Abbitt for his years in prison. However, no amount of money can make up for such a miscarriage of justice.