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HBO: Darryl, can you take us back to where this all
began? What it was like when you were first
arrested?
Darryl Hunt: It started back in the summer of '84. The first
time I had contact with the police was the day
of Ms. Sykes being murdered. And up until
the time I was arrested, I didn't think about
being arrested. I thought I was being helpful,
giving them information of where I was that
had nothing to do with the crime, but in the
end I was arrested.
At the District Attorney's office, the statement
to me was if I didn't say it was Sammy
Mitchell, they would charge me, and I couldn't
lie on Sammy Mitchell so (the DA) picked up
the telephone and called downstairs and told
them to draw up a first degree murder charge
for Darryl Hunt. And that's where it started.
HBO: One of the many remarkable things about
your story is how you refused to betray your
feelings. They even offered you a plea deal at
one juncture, but you wouldn't take it. Why?
Darryl Hunt: I couldn't lie on someone else and I couldn't
lie on myself. I know I didn't commit this
crime and for me to admit to doing something
that I didn't do, I couldn't live with myself.
And the other reason was, I believe that the
family and the victim needed to know who
committed this crime, and it wasn't me. And
if I pled guilty to it, no one would ever have
known and I thought that was wrong.
HBO: Mark, tell us about your first encounter with
Darryl. Why did you take this case on?
Mark Rabil: I was twenty-nine years old at the time, and
I'd been working with a small law firm for
about four years and from the time I started
working as an attorney, I took court-
appointed cases. One of the other attorneys
in our law firm was appointed to represent
Darryl in the case, and it became apparent to
him that it was going to be very complex, and
so he asked the judge to appoint me to help
him.
It was clear from the beginning that the State
was going to go for the death penalty. It was a
horrible case and we were basically afraid of a
lynching. So it was very stressful from the
beginning because we certainly had no idea
whether Darryl was guilty or innocent. And
as in most cases, we started out thinking, well
he must have had something to do with it or
he would not have been charged.
But as soon as I met with Darryl and talked to
him and asked him questions, the whole
picture changed. Darryl was able to answer
any question that I asked of him about where
he was, who he was with, what he was
wearing. He was very clear about times. He
knew where he was. He was also willing to go
through any type of scientific testing that we
could come up with from blood group typing
to DNA testing. We even lied to him and told
him that they could do DNA testing which in
1984 was not even a possibility. But he was
able to do that.
He took polygraph tests as time went on, he
passed those, voice stress analysis, he passed
those. Everything he said turned out to be
true. And the more we found out about the
State's witnesses, the less credible they
became.
HBO: What were your feelings as you found yourself
coming closer to being convicted?
Darryl Hunt: Well, I had hoped that the system was going
to work, and that the jury was listening to
everything that was being said. And it turned
out they weren't, but up until I was actually
convicted, I was hopeful that the system
would do the right thing.
HBO: Mark, what were your thoughts at the time?
Mark Rabil: As we went into that first trial, I felt like I was
taking a train journey about a hundred years
into the past. Everyday we would go into this
courthouse that had extra guards brought
out. They brought out the local sheriff's
SWAT team to be on top of the court house,
because it was the first trial they allowed TV
cameras in the history of our county. I felt
like I was going back into the past as well
because I had no doubt of the racist feelings
of those in power who were conducting this
trial, and of those who were going to be on the
journey.
It was not a feeling of personally being
threatened, although I'm sure I probably
should have felt that way. But in the sense of
feeling like there was not going to be justice in
that courtroom. And I base that because of
the attitudes of the DAs who were trying the
case and the whole environment. There was
no feeling that anybody cared that a
Klansman was the main witness against
Darryl.
I mean here we had a young black man
charged with the rape and murder of a white
newspaper editor, and in the not-too-distant
past in the South, that truly was grounds for
a lynching. And I felt like we were walking
into a modern day lynching everyday when I
went into that court house.
HBO: What it was like for you to then appeal your
case all the way to the Supreme Court only to
have it shot down?
Darryl Hunt: I thought we would have a chance. I'd been
following some of the Supreme Court rulings,
and I really thought this would be the one.
And then when they shot us down, it was the
same old feelings of hopelessness. But, I still
held on.
Mark Rabil: I was in shock because I really expected that
they might take his case, that they might take
up the very important issue of whether DNA
evidence that shows that somebody is
innocent really matters in federal law. And
basically by turning down Darryl's case they
were saying that innocence does not matter as
a matter of federal Constitutional law. And
they still say that. Innocence is not relevant
under federal procedural law, even today in
2007.
I also have to say I reacted quite differently
from Darryl. I was fairly angry that the courts
had continued to reject Darryl. Yet for some
reason there was something inside me that
kept looking for a way out of this for Darryl.
And it was Darryl's faith that pulled the rest of
us through.
HBO: It seems like throughout all this, Darryl, you
never changed who you were and what you
believed in.
Darryl Hunt: Well, I always give credit to my grandparents
who raised me, and what they would tell me
was that no matter what situation you were
in, someone's in a worse situation than you so
be thankful for what you have. And then I
learned from a guy who had been incarcerated
almost twenty years when I first got in that
said if I wanted to live, then I had to let anger
and bitterness out of my heart, and so I tried
to practice that.
Mark Rabil: At the time, people were saying to me that it's
probably a good thing Darryl was charged
with this murder because it saved him from a
life of crime, and he was headed down the
wrong road anyway. And I can't help but feel
like that is such an ignorant statement,
especially after you get to know Darryl. He is
the same person he was when I first met him
twenty-three years ago. He still says the same
things now that he said then. This travesty,
this twenty years of incarceration didn't make
Darryl a better person. It just took twenty
years from his life. It probably changed his
life in the sense of rather than being
somebody who's got ten years to retirement,
he now has a purpose which is to work with
his project, and to work against the travesty of
capital punishment.
HBO: Can you describe your feelings when you got
the news that you might actually be freed?
Darryl Hunt: I was elated, but I was still cautious up until
we actually went into court.
HBO: Can you talk about the moment when Darryl turned around in court and addressed the
victim's mother?
Mark Rabil: That was probably the most incredible
moment I've ever experienced in a courtroom.
Freddy and I didn't know what Darryl was
going to say when he turned around to speak
to Mrs. Jefferson, the mother of Deborah
Sykes, but we knew that whatever it was, it
was going to be right because we had faith in
Darryl. And when he said what he did to her,
how he prayed for her despite what she had
just said to him in the courtroom, it was very,
very moving. I know I would find it extremely
difficult to turn and say that to somebody who
was looking at me with such unfortunate
hatred in her eyes. And I don't mean to be
critical of Mrs. Jefferson because she was lied
to for twenty years and I think they continued
to lie to her even to that day. So it's not her
fault that she had this hatred, it was
unfortunately instilled in her by the way this
case was handled.
HBO: Darryl, tell us about the work you're doing
now with your organization.
Darryl Hunt: It's called the Darryl Hunt Project for Freedom
and Justice, and what we do is basically three
things. One we work with the Innocence
Project around the state to help other people
who are innocent get out of prison. We also
do reentry work for people getting out of
prison, helping them find jobs, housing,
clothes, food, counseling, anything to help
them get reestablished back into society. And
we do educational work. Part of what the film
does is to educate people about the criminal
justice system. And I speak to kids on the
criminal justice system and life itself, and
educating them about how to be productive
and how to stay out of trouble.
HBO: What do you hope audiences will take away
from the film?
Mark Rabil: I hope that people who see this film will take
away that faith is much more important than
any of us think. And I know that's probably
odd for an attorney to say, but if it had not
been for Darryl's faith and the faith he
instilled in us, and for the community praying
for him and pulling us through, the legal
system never would have done what it finally
did.
Darryl Hunt: I hope the film helps to be a voice for those
who have no voice. Because there's so many
people who are still in prison and on death
row who are innocent and they need a voice.
And I hope and pray that people will go out
and stand up for someone who can't stand up
for themselves.
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