aGameOfThrones
01-23-2015, 10:00 PM
By Michael Futch Staff writer | Updated 37 minutes ago
WHITEVILLE - Joseph Sledge Jr. walked out of the Columbus County Detention Center early Friday afternoon, for the first time in over 37 years a free man.
"Thank God," he said.
Earlier, a three-judge panel in a special session of Superior Court exonerated the 70-year-old former Fayetteville resident, who was convicted of a double homicide in Bladen County in 1978.
At 2:14 p.m., not quite an hour after the ruling, Sledge was released from custody and exited outside under overcast skies to face a gathering of largely media members.
Happiness graced his face, just as it had earlier when he embraced his sister, Barbara Kinlaw, in the Columbus County Courthouse Annex after his charges were dismissed.
Three of his family members - Kinlaw, brother Oscar Sledge and nephew Maurice Sledge - were outside the law enforcement center to meet him. She said their plan was to take Joseph Sledge to Savannah, Georgia, where she lives.
Chris Mumma, his lawyer who had worked for more than 10 years to win his freedom, was also standing outside, awaiting his release.
Sledge said there was no doubt in his mind that this day would come. "There weren't no doubt," he said in his soft-spoken manner. "My Mama gave me reassurance. She said, 'Just be patient.' Patience is the best thing."
Sledge said he held no bitterness, although he had always maintained his innocence of the 1976 murders of Josephine Davis and her daughter, Aileen Davis. He had also, over the years, filed 25 motions for release before DNA evidence indicated that he had been wrongly convicted.
"No, sir. No, sir. I can live with myself," he said. "I spent all these years in prison. When you're conscious of something you didn't do, you can live with yourself. It's between you and your maker. He know. That's the reality to the matter."
In May 2013, the case was referred to the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission for investigation and review. The state agency re-opens old cases if there's evidence someone could have been wrongly convicted.
The commission voted unanimously in December that Sledge's case merited further review by a trio of judges who have the power to declare him not guilty of the double murder and set him free.
"That hearing, and the investigation that proceeded it, produced new and compelling evidence that suggests not only that Mr. Sledge is not guilty of these crimes, but there is substantial evidence that he is innocent of it," Cumberland County District Attorney Jon David said.
Superior Court Judges Thomas H. Lock, Devin Bridges and Anna Mills Wagoner made up the panel at the three-hour, 20-minute hearing, held upstairs in the courthouse annex.
"The unanimous decision of the three-judge panel of the Superior Court judges is that the defendant - Joseph Sledge Jr., the convicted person - has proved by clear and convincing evidence he is innocent of the murders of Josephine and Aileen Davis in Bladen County on Sept. 6, 1976," Lock said after the panel conferred privately. "It is therefore ordered ... that the release sought by the convicted person is granted and that the charges of the murders of Josephine and Aileen Davis ... are hereby dismissed.
"It is further ordered," Lock said, "that Joseph Sledge Jr. be immediately released from custody."
He is entitled to collect $750,000 in compensation from the state for his wrongful conviction and imprisonment.
The murders of Josephine and Aileen Davis remain unsolved.
Columbus County District Attorney Jon David said the case will be reopened and that he's asking the State Bureau of Investigation to resume the probe into the murders.
David was 6 years old and living in Florida when this sensationalist double homicide took place. When he was contacted about hairs found on the body of Aileen Davis, David told the judges, he realized the importance. The DNA analysis done on the nine hairs was unavailable at the time of the trial in 1978.
"Not only can we say conclusively that it's not his hair," David said, "but it's certainly somebody else's. All of the hairs, all nine hairs recovered from the victim, Aileen Davis' abdomen, were from the same contributor. Not Mr. Sledge, but somebody else of African-American origin."
One of the two prison inmates who had testified against Sledge in 1978, Herman Baker, later confessed that he had lied about a so-called Sledge confession to get a share of a $5,000 reward. The other former inmate, Donnie Sutton, died in 1991.
As the day's events unfolded, Sledge said there was nothing in particular going through his mind. "Just being free,'' he said, adding things had not yet soaked in for him.
When asked what he was going to do next, he had a short list: "I think I'm going home, relaxing, sleeping in a real bed.''
http://www.fayobserver.com/news/local/joseph-sledge-imprisoned-for-years-exonerated-by-three-judge-panel/article_d9292007-7535-511f-b932-b6bfb0f0b119.html?mode=jqm
WHITEVILLE - Joseph Sledge Jr. walked out of the Columbus County Detention Center early Friday afternoon, for the first time in over 37 years a free man.
"Thank God," he said.
Earlier, a three-judge panel in a special session of Superior Court exonerated the 70-year-old former Fayetteville resident, who was convicted of a double homicide in Bladen County in 1978.
At 2:14 p.m., not quite an hour after the ruling, Sledge was released from custody and exited outside under overcast skies to face a gathering of largely media members.
Happiness graced his face, just as it had earlier when he embraced his sister, Barbara Kinlaw, in the Columbus County Courthouse Annex after his charges were dismissed.
Three of his family members - Kinlaw, brother Oscar Sledge and nephew Maurice Sledge - were outside the law enforcement center to meet him. She said their plan was to take Joseph Sledge to Savannah, Georgia, where she lives.
Chris Mumma, his lawyer who had worked for more than 10 years to win his freedom, was also standing outside, awaiting his release.
Sledge said there was no doubt in his mind that this day would come. "There weren't no doubt," he said in his soft-spoken manner. "My Mama gave me reassurance. She said, 'Just be patient.' Patience is the best thing."
Sledge said he held no bitterness, although he had always maintained his innocence of the 1976 murders of Josephine Davis and her daughter, Aileen Davis. He had also, over the years, filed 25 motions for release before DNA evidence indicated that he had been wrongly convicted.
"No, sir. No, sir. I can live with myself," he said. "I spent all these years in prison. When you're conscious of something you didn't do, you can live with yourself. It's between you and your maker. He know. That's the reality to the matter."
In May 2013, the case was referred to the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission for investigation and review. The state agency re-opens old cases if there's evidence someone could have been wrongly convicted.
The commission voted unanimously in December that Sledge's case merited further review by a trio of judges who have the power to declare him not guilty of the double murder and set him free.
"That hearing, and the investigation that proceeded it, produced new and compelling evidence that suggests not only that Mr. Sledge is not guilty of these crimes, but there is substantial evidence that he is innocent of it," Cumberland County District Attorney Jon David said.
Superior Court Judges Thomas H. Lock, Devin Bridges and Anna Mills Wagoner made up the panel at the three-hour, 20-minute hearing, held upstairs in the courthouse annex.
"The unanimous decision of the three-judge panel of the Superior Court judges is that the defendant - Joseph Sledge Jr., the convicted person - has proved by clear and convincing evidence he is innocent of the murders of Josephine and Aileen Davis in Bladen County on Sept. 6, 1976," Lock said after the panel conferred privately. "It is therefore ordered ... that the release sought by the convicted person is granted and that the charges of the murders of Josephine and Aileen Davis ... are hereby dismissed.
"It is further ordered," Lock said, "that Joseph Sledge Jr. be immediately released from custody."
He is entitled to collect $750,000 in compensation from the state for his wrongful conviction and imprisonment.
The murders of Josephine and Aileen Davis remain unsolved.
Columbus County District Attorney Jon David said the case will be reopened and that he's asking the State Bureau of Investigation to resume the probe into the murders.
David was 6 years old and living in Florida when this sensationalist double homicide took place. When he was contacted about hairs found on the body of Aileen Davis, David told the judges, he realized the importance. The DNA analysis done on the nine hairs was unavailable at the time of the trial in 1978.
"Not only can we say conclusively that it's not his hair," David said, "but it's certainly somebody else's. All of the hairs, all nine hairs recovered from the victim, Aileen Davis' abdomen, were from the same contributor. Not Mr. Sledge, but somebody else of African-American origin."
One of the two prison inmates who had testified against Sledge in 1978, Herman Baker, later confessed that he had lied about a so-called Sledge confession to get a share of a $5,000 reward. The other former inmate, Donnie Sutton, died in 1991.
As the day's events unfolded, Sledge said there was nothing in particular going through his mind. "Just being free,'' he said, adding things had not yet soaked in for him.
When asked what he was going to do next, he had a short list: "I think I'm going home, relaxing, sleeping in a real bed.''
http://www.fayobserver.com/news/local/joseph-sledge-imprisoned-for-years-exonerated-by-three-judge-panel/article_d9292007-7535-511f-b932-b6bfb0f0b119.html?mode=jqm