DURHAM, N.C. (AP) – When another case of possible prosecutorial misconduct arose in Durham County, it was all one innocence advocate could take.
Chris Mumma, director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, reached out to the incoming district attorney. Would he be willing to work with her on an audit of cases of people incarcerated by Durham County prosecutors in the past?
Roger Echols said yes, spurring a massive review that quietly began two years ago. The examination of the cases of 1,120 incarcerated people now is focused on 20 cases the center is investigating.
“If it gets to the point in any of those cases that they think it is reason for me to act,” Echols said Thursday, “there’s no obligation on our part to rubber-stamp what they’ve done but there’s an obligation that I feel that I have in any case they identify, to review it carefully.”
Mumma and Echols spoke the day after Darryl Howard was freed Wednesday, following 21 years in prison for two slayings he says he didn’t commit.