NC Gov. Beverly Perdue pardons former longtime prisoner who was absolved of murder conviction

NC governor pardons man absolved in murder case

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina’s governor has granted a pardon to a man absolved of a murder conviction in the first case of its kind in the country.

Gov. Beverly Perdue issued the pardon of Greg Taylor on Friday afternoon. Taylor had already been out of prison since being exonerated by a three-judge panel, but the formal pardon clears the way for him to receive $750,000 in compensation.

The judges absolved Taylor in February of the 1991 murder of Jacquetta Thomas. He spent almost 17 years in prison for the crime.

Perdue had delayed the pardon, saying she wanted results of a DNA test on clothing Taylor wore the night of the killing.

The judges heard Taylor’s case because of a review by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, the only panel of its kind in the country.