APNewsBreak: Lawyer says police asking to test exonerated NC man’s clothing for victim DNA

APNewsBreak: Lawyer says cops eyeing freed NC man

RALEIGH, N.C. — A North Carolina man exonerated of a prostitute’s murder in a groundbreaking innocence hearing agreed Tuesday to let police test the clothing he wore more than 18 years ago for the victim’s DNA.

Greg Taylor said he agreed to the Raleigh Police Department’s request to show once and for all he’s innocent of the slaying of Jacquetta Thomas in September 1991.

“If my fight was not over when those judges pronounced my innocence, then when will it be over?” Greg Taylor said in an e-mailed statement, referring to his exoneration last month by a three-judge panel.

Taylor’s attorney, Chris Mumma, told The Associated Press that she had wanted to try to retrieve the white T-shirt, blue jeans and other clothing that Taylor was wearing the night Thomas was beaten to death. But Taylor, she said, insisted on allowing the tests.

“He wants to remove any question of his guilt and any association with Jacquetta Thomas, so he agreed to let them test the clothes,” Mumma said in a phone interview.

She said police plan to test for any of the victim’s skin cells on clothes worn by Taylor and Johnny Beck, a friend who was was held in Thomas’ death for about two years until prosecutors dropped charges.

Mumma said Taylor couldn’t be tried again, regardless of the test results, because of the legal principal of double jeopardy, but Beck could be tried. Mumma said she has talked with Beck and he also wants his named cleared.

A Raleigh police spokesman declined to comment immediately. A message left seeking comment at the home of District Attorney Colon Willoughby after hours wasn’t immediately returned.

A three-judge panel found Taylor, 47, innocent of the murder of Thomas, whose beaten body was found on a deserted cul de sac in Raleigh. Taylor was arrested when he went to retrieve his SUV from woods where it was stuck nearby.

He served more than 16 years in prison before the panel released him. His was the first exoneration by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, the only state-run agency in the country dedicated to investigating claims of innocence.

Former state Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr., who formed a coalition in 2002 that recommended that the state establish such a panel, said Taylor should not turn over the clothing and that the police have no rights to it. Lake also said he doesn’t think Taylor could be tried again, even on lesser charges, in Thomas’ death.

“In my opinion, they are entitled to one thing and that’s a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, beginning with the state of North Carolina and going down to the SBI and the Raleigh Police Department, and whoever’s been involved in this and whoever is now making this totally irresponsible and unwarranted demand on an innocent man,” Lake said.

Mumma said in her letter to police Tuesday that Taylor and Beck “do not want to hide from testing because they have nothing to hide.” They don’t fear the testing, but they do fear the evidence may have been mishandled, she said.

Thomas’ sister, Yolanda Littlejohn of Garner, said she believes the police are using tactics to avoid trying to find who killed her sister.

“Justice was done, and he’s out,” said Littlejohn, who supported Taylor. “But injustice still continues. They’re harassing a man who’s innocent and doing nothing to appease the family.”