Good article in yesterday's Raleigh newspaper:
Published Thu, Nov 26, 2009 02:00 AM
Modified Thu, Nov 26, 2009 05:00 AM
Lawyers fault Taylor case
RALEIGH Gregory Taylor refused to blame another man for a murder police had pinned on him, resisting a temptation detectives and a prosecutor repeatedly putbefore him.
That fortitude cost Taylor 16 years of freedom, the chance to raise his daughter and the ability to care for his aging parents.
New court filings by Taylor's attorneys, who are pursuing his exoneration, detail how Taylor was targeted by police and eventually convicted of killing Jacquetta Thomas, a prostitute who was beaten to death in Southeast Raleigh in 1991.
In February, Taylor, 47, will face a panel of judges who will consider whether to exonerate him. Taylor's case was referred to the panel in September after the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission decided there was enough evidence to merit further review.
Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby has indicated he intends to fight efforts to exonerate Taylor. Willoughby and his assistant Tom Ford, the original prosecutor, did not return calls for comment Tuesday and Wednesday. Raleigh police declined to comment.
Taylor's attorneys submitted new court documents late Tuesday which make a case for his exoneration.
The documents show that his conviction hinged on the testimony of a prostitute and a jailhouse informer, both of whom cooperated with prosecutors to secure a break in their sentences. The informant offered a confession with the wrong manner of death; the prostitute testified that a photo police shared of Taylor didn't look like the guy she saw that night.
Time and again throughout a 5-inch-thick court filing, Taylor is seen forgoing the opportunity to blame Johnny Beck, a friend with whom he'd smoked crack the night of Thomas' murder. Theirs was a new friendship; Beck, a convicted drug user, helped Taylor navigate the drug market of Southeast Raleigh.
Police immediately zeroed in on Taylor and Beck after Thomas' murder. Thomas' body was discovered near Taylor's SUV, which he had pulled into a dark, secluded path so he and Beck could smoke crack. Taylor's SUV got stuck in the mud, so he abandoned it there overnight.
By the time Taylor came to retrieve it the next morning, Raleigh police had swarmed the area. Throughout the day, police questioned Taylor, telling him they had a witness who saw him and Beck "right in the middle of something" and that Thomas' blood was in his car, according to a transcript of the police interview.
In truth, police had no such witness. Nothing of Thomas', blood or hair, was found in or around Taylor's SUV.
Such interview tactics are common; no law forbids police from lying during interrogations, legal experts say.
Tempted to shift blame
Raleigh Police Detective Johnny Howard told Taylor, "I will bring in my experts, and I will bring in my dog, and I will convict you in court," according to the transcript.
Taylor insisted: "I did not do it. I'm telling you the truth."
Howard replied: "Well, then there will be an innocent man convicted of murder."
Later, Howard continued to press: "Now, what you need to decide is if you [are] going to be charged with that murder or [are] you going to be a witness to that murder?"
Howard eventually told Taylor that Beck had blamed him for the murder.
In truth, Beck did not tell police Taylor committed the murder. He, too, has maintained their innocence.
Taylor agreed to submit to a lie detector test, but one was never administered, according to court documents.
By evening, less than 10 hours after discovering Thomas' body, police charged both Taylor and Beck with first-degree murder. No other suspects were interviewed.
Taylor continued to resist invitations to blame Thomas' murder on Beck. The next opportunity came through a friend of Taylor's the day after he was arrested, according to an affidavit filed in the case.
Howard, the detective, interviewed Chris Bunn, a friend of Taylor's with whom he had been before heading to Raleigh with Beck.
According to Bunn, Howard asked him to convey a message to Taylor. Bunn recalled Howard saying: "Mr. Bunn, I can get you in to see Greg, and if you tell him to tell me that the [racial epithet] did it, we'll turn him loose."
Beck is black; Taylor is white. Again, Taylor refused.
Howard is no longer with the Raleigh Police Department. Attempts to find him for comment failed Wednesday.
At trial, prosecutor Tom Ford told jurors that Beck had killed Thomas and that Taylor was merely there, whichamounted to committing murder in the eyes of prosecutors.
Taylor's 'last chance'
In 1993, months after the jury convicted Taylor and sentenced him to life in prison, Ford offered Taylor one last opportunity to spare himself by turning on Beck. He offered to lobby the governor to commute Taylor's sentence if he would implicate Beck, who was still awaiting trial for Thomas' murder.
Ford wrote to Taylor's attorney: "I realize your client has some serious decisions to make, i.e. whether saving face with his family is worth twenty years plus in prison."
Ford continued: "If the state is forced to enter a dismissal in Mr. Beck's case because of Mr. Taylor's refusal to cooperate, we will consider any offer we made him to be forever withdrawn."
Again, Taylor didn't budge.
Ford eventually dismissed the murder charge against Beck, the man he had told jurors during Taylor's trial had actually killed Thomas.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local_ … 11707.html
Rule No. 1 - If it sounds good - it is good!
