The North Carolina Supreme Court told state prosecutors last week that they couldn’t take a shortcut in appealing a judge’s decision to exonerate four men in the murder of NBA star Chris Paul’s grandfather.
The court denied a petition the state Attorney General’s Office filed asking it to review Superior Court Judge Robert Broadie’s August ruling, which overturned the four men’s murder convictions and dismissed the charges with prejudice. State prosecutors wanted the state Supreme Court to review Broadie’s decision before the Court of Appeals had a chance to take it up.
It was an unusual request. The Court of Appeals hears the majority of criminal appeals. Death penalty cases are the only ones that are appealed directly to the state Supreme Court.
The Attorney General’s Office has also filed a petition with the Court of Appeals, which is pending. A spokesperson with the office declined comment about last week’s decision from the state Supreme Court.
This is the latest in a case that spans more than 20 years. Five teenagers—Nathaniel Cauthen, Rayshawn Banner, Christopher Bryant, Jermal Tolliver, and Dorrell Brayboy—were convicted of murdering 61-year-old Nathaniel Jones. Winston-Salem police said Jones was attacked soon after he arrived at his East Winston-Salem home on November 15, 2002, beaten in the head and face, and left to die of a cardiac arrhythmia.
Five days later, Paul, a high school senior who had just signed to play basketball at Wake Forest University, scored 61 points in his grandfather’s honor. The moment catapulted the teenager into the national limelight. Paul went on to play for several NBA teams, most recently the Los Angeles Clippers. He recently announced his retirement.
The men who were convicted have long maintained their innocence, alleging that police coerced them into making false confessions. No definitive physical evidence, such as fingerprints, tied them to the crime scene. New questions were raised after the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission started investigating and discovered that the key witness, Jessicah Black, had recanted. New DNA testing on some of the physical evidence found that none of the DNA matched the five men or Black.
Black’s recantation was part of what led Broadie to issue a 33-page ruling exonerating the four living men (Brayboy was murdered a year after his release from prison) and dismissing charges against them with prejudice last August. That meant they could not be retried and made it difficult for prosecutors to appeal the ruling.
Ever since, however, state prosecutors have sought to overturn Broadie’s ruling. They also have successfully blocked the release of Cauthen and Banner, who are serving life sentences for first-degree murder (Bryant and Tolliver are out after serving sentences for second-degree murder).
“Rayshawn, Nathaniel, and their family are thankful for this additional step on their very long road to justice and freedom,” Christine Mumma, their attorney, said in a statement.
Attorneys for the men sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Jackson on October 6, saying all four men would agree to be retried in exchange for Banner’s and Cauthen’s release on bond. The Attorney General’s Office declined the offer more than a month later, saying it needed Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill to agree.
If prosecutors retried the case, they’d likely have difficulty securing a conviction. The defense has new evidence about the men’s intellectual disabilities at the time they were interrogated. Their statements at the time of their arrest, which were inconsistent with each other and with the physical evidence, would likely be suppressed. And without Black’s original testimony, there are no eyewitnesses who could testify they saw the five teenagers at Jones’ house the night he died.