4 Burst results for "North Carolina Innocence Commission"
106.1 FM WTKK
"north carolina innocence commission" Discussed on 106.1 FM WTKK
"Back to the outlaw lawyer, Josh and go with you and we've been talking about the innocent commission and we're about to talk about one of their big success stories before we do that. If you have any questions about the law or about anything that's going on with you personally, or any questions about the show the content of the show where it comes from, give us a call. As always, we've got a nice 1 800 number 1 806 59 11 86. Always wondered about people who didn't like abbreviate The numbers like 11 86. It would just go 1186 like the people who would announce the number 1 806 591186. They seem like weird people. I don't like those people. I can't deal with those people. So our phone number is 1 806 59 11 86 159? Yes. You're one of those people. Yeah. 1 806 59 11 86 so you can call and you can leave a message for me or Joe or the law firm or that law lawyer. We'd be happy to help any way we can. We also have an email address. If that's easier for you, it's questions. That's questions. Plural questions at the Outlaw lawyer dot com and our website is the outlaw lawyer. Com. I think someone out there has outlaw lawyer We are the outlaw lawyer dot com. We are lawyers. We will be actively pursuing litigation against this person. So we're gonna get right after this right after after these messages, But you can go to that website and we do have a listen now button and you can listen to all of our episodes. They're all there for you. In case you I can't get to your radio for the show. We've We've got everything there. Yeah, we We talk about a lot of, uh, sometimes complicated subject matter. And you know, we we love each and every one of our listeners individually. All the same, and we'd love to hear from you guys. And if you have you ever have any questions? If there's everything, anything we're talking about on the show that you, you know, want us to discuss more or any kind of follow up questions We'd love to hear from you. You know, give us a call. Shoot us an email. That's what we're here for is to interact with everybody. And to really talk about the things you guys would like to hear us talk about and just by way of review. You know, the law firm has five offices. So we're in Riley. We're in Garner. Clayton Goldsborough and fickle Verena were active in Wake and Harnett and Wayne and Johnston counties and and the other surrounding counties. Um, but if you got a real estate closing would be happy to help you. You've got some family law issues the state administration a state planning our firm would be happy to assist and you can reach the firm 1 806 59 11 86 Just leave us a message and we'll have Someone at the firm give you a call again Questions at the outlaw lawyer dot com. But Joe will hop back into it. And so we're about to talk about one of the innocence Commissions. First successful exonerations. That's right, Josh. We are talking about Gregory Flint Taylor. So Taylor Is actually the first person that was cleared by the North Carolina Innocence Commission. He actually had served at the time that he was clear he had served 17 years for first degree murder. I'm Josh. Why don't you talk a little bit about the facts of the case before we dive into it? So this was interesting. So this was this was back in April, 1993 in an officer on patrol found the body of Jah Quetta. Thomas, who was as they described in the police reports was a prostitute. At the time of her death. So she was a known prostitute, and they found her body. Uh, it used to be on Blount Street where there was a cold a sack, And then it was. It was not developed. Used to be some undeveloped property in downtown rally if you if you can believe it, and so it was kind of in an area of downtown that wasn't highly populated. And so the officer on the scene, Uh, call for backup Start securing the scene started doing their investigation. Mr Taylor showed up about an hour later and turns out his vehicle. I think it was a Pathfinder. But his vehicle was about 150. Ft. From the body, uh, kind of had gotten stuck in some mud and like I said of grassy, undeveloped part of Blount Street there Um And so the officer started asking Mr Taylor questions. Mr. Taylor admitted to having seen the body. Mr. Taylor had had a buddy with him. Have been doing some drinking had been smoking, some crack, admittedly drinking and smoking some crack. Um, And so they weren't doing some four wheeling went off right on purpose, got everything stuck and then decided to walk home because they couldn't get it unstuck and they were inebriated, so there were no condition to try to free the vehicle. Mr. Taylor also had mentioned that they did see Mrs Thomas's body. They saw a man with her over her. Um she was on the ground either. Didn't think much about it or are just didn't not in a condition to do anything about it and and left. I think this is a side note, but Drinking, smoking crack off road vehicle and you just come upon a body. Incredibly incredibly bad luck. Amazingly so, yeah, and and and so, Mr Taylor, you know, just going on the facts. You know, it is not the most sympathetic character, you know, kinda in the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess is what Mr Taylor. Would say, But you know, there was some there was no real eyewitness is there was a witness account that said, Mr Taylor and and a gentleman were in a car and they saw Mr Thomas Get in with him and ride around. So you had some. You had some witnesses. That kind of put them all together. None that put them at the scene of the Crime. Um So anyway, so they, you know the cops. They did their investigation again. No wrongdoing on the law enforcement. I think that's always important when we talk about These type of cases that you know, No one here is alleging law enforcement did anything wrong? They're just doing their investigation, and Mr Taylor was eventually charged. There was enough. You know, there's some. There's some discussion. We won't get into it here. But there's some discussion there was like Some some tests done and found maybe some traces of blood on the underside of the vehicle. But nothing inside the vehicle. Nothing like they'd want to see. I think all of it was kind of circumstantial. There was There's a couple other things going on here..
106.1 FM WTKK
"north carolina innocence commission" Discussed on 106.1 FM WTKK
"To that law lawyer. It's Josh Whitaker and Joe Hammer of Whittaker and Hammer here with you, Um We're going to talk about the innocence Commission. Joe tell me a little bit about it. Yes. So the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, which will just affectionately referred to as the North Carolina Innocence Commission. It's the first of its kind in the nation. It's a commission that was created by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2000 and six and actually began operating in 2000 and seven since then, the commission's reviewed over 2500 innocence claims and conducted multiple hearings. The commission's basically charged with providing an independent and balanced true seeking forum for credible post conviction. Claims of innocence in North Carolina. It's a separate body from the traditional appeals process, so the commission doesn't come into play if you're falsely convicted. A defendant would still file appeals. And if accepted, go to the Supreme Court if needed. It's just kind of an additional vehicle to pursuing, You know, justice in the case of an erroneous decision. Joe when I was doing are when I was doing our research, you know, I'm generally as as attorneys were generally generally aware of the existence of this body, but I didn't know too much about the creation of it. Um, And so it was a statute it was created by the General Assembly. It's created by statute. I know a lot of times on the outlaw lawyer. We like to go back and look at the statute because you know, like we did with the dangerous dog statute. I don't know that I've ever read the dangerous dog statute before our before our show on it. But anyway, I'm a shortness to the commission. The commission that's better than what But the car, the car, uh and the C. The Big C. The commission does a lot of good work and it is it is different and separate. Like Joe said It is not. You know, if you get convicted of a crime, you're still responsible for trying to get heard Court of Appeals. Taking it to the Supreme Court. You have to exhaust all your administrative options, so that's one. There's a couple of different criteria. You have to meet to get considered by the commission. Um, but they have been doing a lot since they were operating. So I think the statute passed in. Oh, six. They began. They began operating in those seven and since Oh, seven, I went to their website looks like they have received 2939 claims of innocence. Um, they've got 29 claims so far in 2021. They've had 17 hearings and 15 exoneration. So we've got 15 folks convicted of fairly Serious crimes who have had their convictions exonerated. Um and so that's always a good story. You know, we would. We would argue as attorneys. We have one of the best judicial systems in the in the world, and it's but it is not perfect and it can be biased and it's just as imperfect as the people that operate it and serving the Juries and Serving the judiciary, so to have a body that can review this is I think very important and when it opened when they started, it was the first of its kind in the nation, and I really don't think I I went back to do some research, and I got back as far as 2018. I didn't see any other state doing anything similar to this, Um, still Yeah, and and like you said, we don't have an infallible system because of the fact that it's just at the end of the day as good of a framework as we may have for our legal system, it's just people who are imperfect. Mistakes are made biases, prejudices. There's all kinds of issues with the system, and we do the best we can. But at the same time, the fact that we have this vehicle to look back at things to make sure that anyone who has has been wrong by some injustice can get some relief. I think it's a great thing. And like you, said 15 exonerations. I mean, I think one exoneration is would be enough to justify the existence of the program and the fact that you've got 15 people wrongfully convicted that have been able to Find some relief. How great is that for those folks? Yeah, we'll talk a little bit about what it takes to apply to the commission. Like you said. These are fairly serious offenses. You're not applying to the Innocence Commission to get you out of a traffic ticket. I mean, these are these are major things and so too, in order to apply directly You must be claiming complete factual innocence for the crime for which you were convicted and any related and or lesser offense, So it can't be something you know years, claiming that It's a lesser degree. It's got to be complete factual innocence for both the crime which which you were convicted and or any lesser offense, and you also have to be convicted. Like you said of serious serious crimes, which include homicide, robbery, sex offenses, or class A through e felonies in North Carolina State court. Right. So you can't be convicted of first degree murder and make a claim to the commission and say it should have been manslaughter because that would be a lesser included offense of first degree murder. So you have to be completely innocent. Um, Charlie, the innocence commissioning it is, um in order. So the commission that's what you have to have and so forth in order for the commission to actually review your claim. In addition to being completely innocent and to having a serious offense, you have to, um it has to be a credible and verifiable evidence of innocent so they can review the transcripts from your cases. You know, they can review everything that's already there. But they need new evidence of innocence that the jury In your conviction did not hear that was not available or was not available prior to a plea or a jury trial. So your your criminal charge when it was finalized, there's there's evidence that was either withheld wasn't available. A lot of these have new DNA evidence because there's new, You know, a lot of these are from the eighties and the early nineties, There's new test and and so there has to be some new evidence. And I think you see when you look at the number of claims received verses, the number of hearings you know, you've got almost 2900 Plus claims received and you've got 17 hearings coming from that so The every case isn't going to get reviewed. There's gotta be some kind of like you said new evidence of innocence. Something new. Um, again, we put a lot of we still put a lot of faith in our system. And this is just kind of an additional check where new things have arisen that give that credible potential for innocence that that are going to be reviewed. So My statute. The commission can't review procedural errors, sentencing issues or any other claims that are not associated with actual innocence. So you can't just go back and look at Procedural errors again. It's got to be that new evidence that's being looked at or like you said some issue with the degree of sentencing. That's not what they're here to look at. The Innocence Commission also can't represent claimants that are appealing to them. They also require that claimants wave all privileges, including but not limited to the self incrimination. Attorney client privilege, spouse, so privileged doctor patient privilege. So you're basically waiting all of those privileges to be considered here, and you also have to turn over. Any additional evidence of the crime of anyone else's involvement or any new crimes that are associated to law enforcement as well. So there are a lot of strings attached here and a lot of additional things that must be complied with. Yeah, so the commission is basically telling you, you know the procedural errors, the sentencing issues all that would be handled through the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court. That all has a Mechanism to be to be reviewed. Here It is the innocence..
106.1 FM WTKK
"north carolina innocence commission" Discussed on 106.1 FM WTKK
"Some kind of Let's just call it the oldest building in Clayton. Make somebody disapproving. Yes, yes, It is a historical like it's a legitimate historical Clayton building. We have the plaque and everything. It has a name. It has a name. I think it's the the year the year Agan. It's a fancy name one of the best buildings in the history of Clayton tons of history. And so speaking of our Goldsborough office has outgrown its current space are Goldsborough office was on center Street for a long time, and we have just recently moved into A new office on Ash Street down in Goldsborough. That is, uh, about 3500 square feet. It's got some room for us to grow down there, so we're super excited about a lot of things that are going on with the law firm. A lot of things that are going on with Whitaker and Hammer. So that's always good news. But Joe I wouldn't do a quick update. You know, we week or two ago we talked about a lot of the we had a couple dog attacks stories that were in the news. And, you know, unfortunately, a young girl and Garner was killed by her neighbors dogs, and we can already talked about that. But I saw a news article not too long ago where they were kind of updating because that When we talked about it, the owners of the dogs had surprised everyone and under the dangerous dogs statute here in North Carolina, had petitioned the local officials to keep the dogs. There were some restrictions they would have to meet, and everybody was a little shocked, and that was denied. Um And so I think we talked about the next step is they'd have to petition the You know the superior Court in the county where they were going to be, and they only had, I think July 3rd. Maybe to do that. And I saw something in the in the news where that that family was going to relocate to Franklin County. And so the Franklin County authorities were were kind of taken aback and everybody's just really surprised and we don't know what's going on with that family. It's It's an interesting story and again we never our goal here is not to take sides. We're not advocating for anybody. We're just observing. Things that are happening that have legal consequences. So anyway, I just wanted to. I just want to do that update and say, Hey, we're going to keep looking into that, if anything it's filed will certainly let everybody know how that's going. Yeah, it's a tough one because we all love our pets, and I would imagine Just like we could never imagine our our pets doing anything like this. These folks, probably it felt the exact same. So that's one of those was questions you never want to have to answer is how you would react. In that situation. Um, but again, Yeah. Interesting update. It's always good to keep up with some of these things we've been following. I saw that there was an attorney representing the family now, so I imagine something will be filed and again. Well, we will follow it for just, uh The pure fascination of it. You know, we're fascinated with the legal process and this is not something that I've seen happen, so I'm I'm curious to to look at the documents and see what's going on. But Joe. Let's take a quick break. And when we come back, the North Carolina Innocence Commission comes up a lot in the news today. Up next, we will talk about.
106.1 FM WTKK
"north carolina innocence commission" Discussed on 106.1 FM WTKK
"The North Carolina Innocence Commission. What is it? How did it start? How has it been successful coming up next And now, the Supreme Court has said unanimously. What was wrong Fact based, you believe at the time doesn't necessarily job. What The actual law is reasonable, informative. Now, if you taken facts, and you think about them, and you don't jump to a instant opinion, you're the outlaw and now outlaw lawyer here with Josh Whittaker. Welcome to the outlaw lawyer. My name is Josh Whitaker. I am a partner with the law firm of would occur and hammer. I am here today with my co host, Joe Hammer. Joe, welcome. Thanks for having me Josh Joe is also a partner. He is the other part of Whitaker and Hammer. He is the hammer. So we are both partners with political and hammer. Whitaker Hammer is a law firm here in the area. We have five offices in Raleigh, Garner. Clayton Goldsborough. And fickle Verena. We have many attorneys, and we can help you with most of your legal issues. Um, if you have a question for one of our attorneys, or you have a question for The show. You can always reach us at 1 806 59 11 86. That's 1 806 59 11 86. That phone number is set up to take your message for either the show or for the law firm. Um so feel free to use that and we also have an email address. So if you have any questions or concerns for the show, or for one of our attorneys, you can get us at questions. That's plural. Questions at the outlaw lawyer dot com Questions at the outlaw lawyer dot com. So if you have any questions or comments for us, please send those over we'd love to hear from you would love to be able to answer Any questions or comments you may have on on the air, But today we're going to spend some time talking about something That's been in the news a lot over the past couple of years, and that's the North Carolina Innocence Commission. Yeah. North Carolina Innocence Commission. Um, so yeah, Like like, Josh said. We're attorneys with the law firm of Whittaker and Hammer. Um and and that's what we do. That's our day. Job is being attorneys and We were here on the outlaw lawyer again, Always to just discuss that intersection of really everything with the law and kind of taking a look at how the legal world intersects with Pretty much every other facet of society and to and to talk about current events. Current news things like that. Um, and, uh, so yeah, but we are attorneys by trade. And so we do do a good bit of talking about our practice and things like that, and again. The purpose of the show is not to give you guys legal advice. It's more or less to look at things from that. Legal analytical perspective and discuss things and the manner that a lawyer would look at them from kind of that neutral, neutral viewpoint, without really giving our opinions just kind of a fact based discussion. But again we are attorneys with the law firm of wood, a current hammer. Um and so we do from time to time talk about you know what we do and and how important it is to any time you need an attorney to reach out to an attorney, and how important important that Experiences when you're choosing an attorney, and when you're shopping for a professional or fiduciary, right? Yeah, that's a good point. You know, one of the things I I told someone is it was never my goal to come out and get business by being The cheapest attorney in in town. You know, we don't have to be the most expensive attorneys. But the point of that is that price fee is not always the most important thing when you're shopping for an attorney or a financial planner or CPA when you're looking for a professional to give you advice. You need to referrals, you know, reviews advice from people, you know recommendations from people. You know, I always want to mention that the people cause we have a lot of people who call the law firm. And they just want to know a flat fee for something and attorneys. We have problems a lot of times with flat feet, because when you call us and say, Hey, I need someone to do blank. Well, we don't know what you got going on. We don't know how many people are involved. Don't know if we have to go back and fix something. We don't know where you're at. And so attorneys quoting flat fees, that's that always concerns me, because, uh, there's not many transactional scenarios where you can just very confidently quote a flat fee, and we've had people do that and not hire us because someone else quoted are really, really low fee and just be careful. It money is important. We're not we don't we're not unlimited financially. Um, So we all have to be mindful of what we're spending on legal fees and professional fees, But that's something that comes up. That's something my dad told me a long time ago that that's not how you pick your professional. The cheapest that's true. Yes, don't don't bargain shop for your attorney. I like to think we do a great job of balancing, you know, a reasonable cost with a lot of years of experience. Collectively, you know one thing. I think it's important to look for when you are shopping for a professional or looking for someone to help you with. An important legal matter or really anything that's of a serious nature like that is, um, you know if you're looking for someone local look at how long they've been around in the community. And if you've got to Company or an individual That's been around for a long time in the local community. Um, you know, 10 15 years in our case you usually That's a good indicator that that these people are doing quality work for the people in their community that they've been able to stick around for that long and you know, continue to grow and build their business in that way. And so I've, you know, Joseph building on that I've been in there I was born and raised in Riley. I'm out in the 276 or three area code kind of between Riley Garner and fickle and that's where I've spent. You know, my my 44 years. Uh, It's kind of in those communities and, uh, yeah, I think that's important. I know when I'm looking for somebody when I'm looking for a professional, I wanna know where they're where they're from. How long they've been around. You know things like that. So I know you've spent you spend most of your time in our Clayton office in your You're born and raised down there, born and raised in Clayton spent my just love the place can get away from it Wouldn't wouldn't want to get away from it. So, Yeah, we've We, Uh, we've been very lucky to be in Clayton. You know, I've spent the entirety of my practice and Clayton as well and we've been fortunate enough to grow and We've outgrown a couple of space is currently located right on Main Street, 14 North Fayetteville Street and a very, very old historic building. Look for us right beside Boulevard Coffee shop. It was the Clayton office. What is that? The 2nd 3rd, there's oldest building in Clayton..