Friday, May 02, 2008

NEW EXONERATION - NC

Death row inmate to go free
Levon 'Bo' Jones won't be retried in the 1987 slaying of a Duplin County bootlegger

With his great-niece Tatyana McCormick and great-nephew Christian McCormick in hand, Levon "Bo" Jones walks out of the Duplin County Jail a free man after spending 13 years on death row, charged with robbing and shooting Leamon Grady in February 1997. (News&Observer Staff Photo by Shawn Rocco)

Another North Carolina man once condemned for murder will walk free today.

Levon "Bo" Jones of Duplin County spent 13 years on death row, convicted of robbing and shooting a well-liked bootlegger. In 2006, a federal judge ordered Jones off death row and overturned his conviction, declaring his attorney's performance so poor that his constitutional rights had been violated.

Today, Jones will become the eighth North Carolina man spared execution after charges against him were dropped. Judges turned the inmates loose after discovering a variety of problems in their cases, ranging from hidden evidence to inadequate defense attorneys.

Read complete article here

Read statement by the NCADP and ACLU Press Release here

1 comment:

CN said...

Another important editorial on NC's most recently freed death row inmate Published May 03, 2008

http://www.newsobserver.com/print/saturday/opinion/story/1059168.html