After wrongfully spending 19 years in prison for the brutal rape and murder of a young woman a North Carolina man is proven innocent and set free.

What should have been a happy ending for Darryl Hunt proved to be anything but I'm Ann Bocock and welcome to Between the Covers.

Awardwinning investigative journalist Phoebe Zerwick is my guest.

Her decades long, relentless research and her story's ultimately led to a convicted killer's exoneration and freedom.

But that's only part of the story; it's told in her book, Beyond Innocence: The Life Sentence of Darryl Hunt.

Phoebe, welcome.

Thank you so much for being here.

Oh, well, thank you so much for inviting me.

It's such a pleasure to talk with you.

And before we get started, congratulations on being shortlisted for the Southern Book Prize.

That is a great honor and well deserved.

Oh, well, thank you so much.

I wanna get into the background because I think the audience needs to understand what was going on and what happened.

It's 1984, it's August, WinstonSalem, North Carolina and a young woman who's working at a newspaper, her name was Deborah Sykes, is getting ready to go to work, and it's very early in the morning.

She parks about two blocks away.

She never makes it to work.

She's found nearby, her body is found, in a park.

So what we need to know is, at this moment in time, who was Darryl Hunt and why was he charged?

Oh, yeah.

I love the way you framed that question.

So, Darryl Hunt was a 19yearold black man in WinstonSalem.

He was essentially homeless that summer.

He'd been raised by his grandfather, and then his grandfather died and he'd broken up with his girlfriend, and he was hanging around with a man who was older than him, who was his best friend.

His name was Sammy Mitchell and they spent so much time together that people around the neighborhood referred to them as the Blues Brothers.

And Sammy Mitchell was somebody who was very well known to the police because he had a fairly long criminal record.

And that, so Darryl Hunt's connection to Sammy Mitchell is what led to police focusing on him as a suspect in this crime.

There was a long series of events that included a phone call by another man, a nine one one call by a man who witnessed this crime.

And for reasons that nobody has understood, he identified himself as Sammy Mitchell.

So police that night went immediately to find Sammy Mitchell and they found Darryl Hunt instead.

And so Darryl Hunt became, over the course of a month, the focus of their investigation.

Yeah.

And then let's get to 2003, you are now a reporter Yes.

At the WinstonSalem Journal, and this is 20 years later, you're assigned a story about Darryl.

What was the assignment?

What did they want you to do?

Yeah, so Darryl Hunt's case had been in the news for, since his arrest.

So first of all, it was the kind of crime that's going to make it to the news.

It was the rape and murder of a white woman who was going to work, just minding her own business and going to work, and the witnesses saw a black man with her.

So immediately, this is the kind of crime that is going to put pressure on the police.

It's going to feed into the stereotypes that we've had in this country since our founding, this idea, this myth that black men are sexual predators.

And so it caused a fair amount of hysteria and pressure to solve the case immediately.

But it also meant that when Darryl was wrongly arrested, he pretty quickly developed a defense committee around him, because black people in this community knew how easy it was to railroad a black man when his crime involved the rape and murder of a white woman.

And so this case had been in the news for 20 years, since I started at the paper in 1987.

But in 2003, Darryl Hunt took advantage of a new law that was on the books in North Carolina that allowed a defendant to ask for DNA testing in the case, if there was physical evidence in the case, and to have that DNA profile run against these databases of convicted offenders, offenders that were now available that had not been available back when he was arrested.

And so he filed this motion, and by then, we had new editors at the newspaper.

I had a city editor who went back and pulled all the clippings in the case, and he thought, oh my gosh, all the paper has done all these years is report on the story, in that objective way that newspapers used to report on things, but the paper had never gone to conduct its own investigation.

And we also had a relatively new managing editor who was interested in the project.

So, they assigned me to take a fresh look at the case.

I think they said, you know, you can have a few weeks off of your regular job.

I wrote the news column three days a week and those few weeks turned into six months and an eight part series of stories that we wrote as a narrative, as a really compelling piece of narrative, nonfiction.

Phoebe, not only that, these stories led to something else, Yeah which absolutely blew me away.

There was a coverup.

There had another rape six months prior.

So, if this had been investigated originally, would Darryl have ever been arrested?

So, yeah, so Darryl would've been arrested.

The rape, actually, the second rape happened six months after his arrest, but still three or four months before he was set to go to trial.

And the woman who was raped, a young woman, same age as well, a few years younger than Deborah Sykes, two blocks from where Deborah Sykes had parked her car.

She was kidnapped and raped in a drivein movie theater.

And she asked police at the time, you know, could these two crimes be related?

They're so similar.

They seem so similar.

And she was told, we've got our guy, and we're not gonna mess up that case.

And they're really not that similar.

So, she was essentially silenced by the police.

She ended up, and they also made her feel that it was up to her whether to prosecute the man she identified.

And so she was effectively silenced.

And it turned out that the man that the second woman had identified, his name was Willard Brown.

He was the man whose DNA matched the crime evidence and the profile that was eventually discovered When Darryl Hunt filed his motion.

And the other chilling, and kind of incredible thing about it is that, after my series began to be published, the second victim's motherinlaw called me and she said: I know Darryl Hunt is innocent and you've gotta look into this.

And I was able to, at least, write a section about this second rape, and I knew the man's name which that the other woman had identified which is really critical, I think, to the way the story eventually unfolded.

Yes, it was and as I'm reading the book, I'm thinking the police and the prosecution simply had tunnel vision and there's a line in the book that you wrote that stood with me, and it said: a compelling story is more powerful than fact.

Yes.

Oh my God, that's so true.

I mean, it's both the beauty of narrative and the danger of it, right?

So, trials unfold following a narrative and when you've got an emotional, powerful storyline, that is often constructed by the prosecutor, it will sway a jury.

And the same thing happens with police investigations.

And you know, of course, we see that all around us today, the way a strong storyline can distort the truth.

There is so much in this book that I had to read it all in one sitting, I couldn't stop.

In 1990, Darryl is offered a plea, and by this, I mean he could plead guilty, he could walk out with time served.

Now, what is truly stunning, is that he says no.

Yes.

So, what does this say about Darryl, and also what does it say about the prosecution's case that they offered this?

Yeah.

Well, first let me start with the prosecution's case so that I can really talk about Darryl.

I mean, what it says to me about the prosecutor is that he knew that Darryl was innocent; Because there's no way that you would offer a deal to a man that you believed was guilty for that kind of horrendous crime.

And he'd only served five years by then.

So to me, it reveals that there was no way that the prosecutor believed in the case that he was prosecuting, but he went ahead and prosecuted anyway.

But what me about Darryl is that even as a young man in 1990, he was only 25 years old He had spent some pretty horrific years in prison by then I mean, he had lived with death threats from guards.

He'd lived with death threats from other inmates.

He was desperately lonely and he'd been out on bond in 1990 because he'd won a new trial.

And so he'd had a taste of what freedom was gonna be like for him again.

So he knew what his choice was, but he had a tremendous amount of integrity.

and he would not confess or admit something that he had not done.

He also, by then, had become a devout Muslim and I think that gave him a lot of moral strength and faith and to admit to something that he hadn't done violated his religious principles.

And so he was not a perfect person at all, and none of us is But he had a tremendous amount of integrity.

You met him, you knew him when he was released, and you write about his dreams being very simple.

He wanted to be married, he wanted children, he wanted a job with the city.

And I think you wrote, all he wanted was a decent life.

This is the Darryl you knew, correct?

Yes.

And that phrase, a decent life, comes from, those are his words he used when he was first arrested and his attorney interviewed him and asked him what he wanted.

And he said, really, all I want is a decent life, is to live a decent life.

And this is not what happened.

Darryl gets free, He is not destined for a simple life because all of a sudden he has a new purpose.

He is now this champion for justice.

There was a documentary made about his life.

What, you knew him, what did this do to him?

What did this responsibility, how did this change him?

Yeah, so of course, I did know him.

but I really didn't pick up on the burden this responsibility was creating for him.

I think I sensed it a little bit, but I really thought that he was thriving; that he'd come out of prison, that he'd become this champion, that he'd become this eloquent speaker, And he was accomplishing so much as a social justice advocate in North Carolina but privately he was really suffering.

So, one of the things that was so difficult for him was this film that was so successful.

He often went to events and they'd show the film and then he would speak, but reliving the trauma that he'd suffered was really damaging to him.

And even talking about it was damaging for him.

And there was a lot of expectation that people put on him or that to some extent he had for himself.

But it created a situation where, I don't think that he felt free to just be the simpler person that he really wanted to be.

And the other thing that his, that this part of his life reveals is that, of course, he'd been in prison for 20 years He didn't have an education, and he didn't have a resume, and he really wasn't qualified for a regular job.

And he also, even though he'd been exonerated, that prison records still showed up When anybody would try, would do a records check on him.

So he was really burdened by this prison record that he had even though he was innocent.

And also people, there were just people, you know, people like to be around celebrities.

And so he felt this obligation to people to be there for them.

And I don't think that he really took the time to heal.

The story does not have a happy ending.

He ends up committing suicide.

Now, your original reporting really changed the trajectory of his life, but you write in the book that you didn't even know the whole story.

There was a friend of his who told you, his friend Rasheed, that Darryl was asking for help and none of you heard him.

That was really powerful to read.

Yeah, yeah.

It was powerful to hear when I first heard it.

So Ayyub Rasheed was a friend of Darryl's from when they were kids growing up, and then they knew each other in jail, in Forsyth County and then Ayyub went to prison in unrelated cases.

And when he got back, Darryl was already out and they spent a lot of time together.

And he was also Muslim, and he knew what Daryl was going through, and he knew that Darryl had developed a drug habit, and that he was having trouble with his marriage.

And also he knew the pressure Darryl was under.

You know, it turned out that Darryl was an attractive man and a celebrity .

So, women were kind of throwing themselves at him, And, all of this was a tremendous amount to deal with, especially as Ayyub explained to me, especially for a man who'd gone to prison at 19 and came out at 39, he'd missed that whole period of time when young people grow up, right?

So, he and Darryl spent a tremendous amount of time together And I think that he helped me understand the pain that Darryl was suffering, and also all the signs that all of the activists and lawyers around him who sort of looked like an entourage in a way.

All the signs that people, including myself had missed.

There are quite a few interesting characters in the book that you detail, Yeah And I'd like to talk about Darryl's exwife, if we could.

And for me, when I'm reading this, and this is such a beautiful, hopeful story that ultimately failed.

Do you wanna talk about that relationship a little bit?

Yeah.

Well, I mean, it's a real love story because they loved each other in this very sweet and tender way.

They met when Darryl was 25, and out of prison awaiting his second trial.

And I think they kind of fell for each other then.

But his April, his exwife had another boyfriend at the time, and who she eventually married and Darryl went back to prison and then that marriage failed and she couldn't stop thinking about him.

And so she actually snuck into her stepfather's study who, he was a part of Darryl Hunt's defense committee.

and she found a letter so she could figure out where Darryl was.

And she wrote him, and she went to see him and they courted over many months, years, really.

She would go to see him in whatever prison he was in in North Carolina, sometimes driving three and four hours.

She went every other weekend and they courted, you know, in the visitation area of a prison and would share food and drinks from the vending machine.

Sometimes she brought her kids, and she kind of became his rock.

And this courtship was going on during the period of time when Darryl was appealing his conviction.

And it would've been, it was a time of, I think, real loneliness and also despair because his lawyers would get all excited.

They'd have a hearing or they'd file another round of appeals.

There'd be this sense They'd find new evidence, there'd be the sense that he would get out and then he would be turned down and rejected again by the court.

And, it was April, who was there to really provide love and kind of, a connection to the outside world To know that you have, are you being sentenced for a horrific crime that you didn't do?

Brings up another thread throughout this book.

And that systemic racism, this poor, young, black man did not stand a chance.

And through this book, I'm hoping that we can recognize the mistakes that we have made in our history, in our criminal justice system.

I don't know if that was your intent, but it is certainly there.

Yeah, absolutely.

It was my intent, my hope was that by reading this compelling story with all of these characters, and the love story and the friendships, and the absolute devotion of Darryl's attorneys, and the people in the defense committee.

So, there's so much for readers to connect with.

My hope is that readers get drawn into a story that also helps them feel what it's like to be in Darryl's position.

What it's like to be a 19 year old kid who is thrown into a jail cell for a crime that he had nothing to do with.

And what it's like to hear the jailers say, well the last nword we had in here, we found hanging.

So I'm hoping that readers who have not had that life experience can experience what that's like through Darryl's story, and the story of the people who cared about him so much.

Your articles not only won awards, it also led to DNA evidence that changed Darryl's life.

This is journalism at its best.

So now I want your take on this because with the death of newspapers, social media now is, you know, the predominant news source.

How problematic is that for a journalist?

Oh my gosh, this is my favorite topic, but the news we get on social media comes from a newspaper; or a television station comes from reporters like the reporter I was 20 years ago, working at the WinstonSalem Journal.

And newsrooms have been slashed because the model, the business model for journalism, has been undermined so much by social media.

And without journalists doing the kind of work that I and so many other journalists did around the country; the chances of having a real check on power, and a real check on what our courts are doing, and what our local governments are doing, and what our Congress is doing.

That diminishes over time and really is a threat, I believe, to our democracy.

The big papers are thriving right now, but the midsize and small news organizations are really, really struggling, and it means that the Darryl Hunt's of the world don't have the local journalists around to look into what's happening to them or to look into the systems, the court systems, and the police systems that lead to the kind of wrongful conviction that Darryl endured.

You dedicated the book to Darryl Hunt and I think it's very telling that not only is the story important to you, but how important the man was to you.

And, in the couple of minutes that we have left, I'd like to leave the story for a little bit and just talk about you.

You are director of journalism at Wake Forest University.

So I wanna know, what's something you've learned from your students?

I've learned so much from my students.

I mean, I've learned so much about writing from my students but, you know, we've just finished up the semester, and I get to read their reflections on their courses and they have learned that the fun of journalism and the joy of it And that the key to journalism is curiosity and a willingness to explore the world.

And the other thing that is really important to my students that they find in our journalism classes is a sense of community and a sense of common purpose.

And that just is so touching and moving to me because, especially after three years of isolation from COVID, I think young people are really hungry for a sense of connection and common purpose.

And I've learned, I've refound the joy in that through my students.

And, yeah, I've learned a lot about telling stories and writing from teaching them how to do it.

And my last one is, if you hadn't been a journalist and a writer, what do you think your career path would have been?

Oh my gosh.

Well, I had thought I was gonna go to medical school and then I, at the time I was, you know, 21 years old and the idea of spending four more years in school and four years in a hospital just depressed the heck out of me.

But I think that that would've been, you know, the other path for me.

I don't know, I always had a, yeah, there was always a part of me that really wanted to be, you know, a naturalist.

So, but, I never, I didn't pursue it.

Maybe if I'd pursued that, I would've been, I don't know, a park ranger.

You made the right choice, Phoebe.

Beyond Innocence is the life sentence that the life sentence of Darryl Hunt.

It's a powerful, compelling book.

Phoebe Zerwick, thank you so much for sharing this time with us.

Thank you, Ann.

I really, really enjoyed the conversation.

I'm Ann Bocock, please join me on the next Between the Covers.