Innocence Project Northwest Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Special Screening of "The Trials of Darryl Hunt"

Innocence Project Northwest (IPNW) will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a special screening of "The Trials of Darryl Hunt", with Darryl Hunt, and his attorneys Mark Rabil and Ben Dowling-Sendor, in attendance to discuss Darryl’s 19-year struggle for freedom.

THE TRIALS OF DARRYL HUNT
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Screening begins at 7 p.m. (Please allow at least 15 minutes for check in)
Varsity Theatre
4329 University Way NE, Seattle, Washington

Since 1997, the IPNW has represented prisoners in Washington with credible claims of actual innocence. Originally a volunteer organization, the IPNW is now a clinical law program at the University of Washington School of Law. The IPNW students, professors and volunteer lawyers have successfully challenged twelve convictions in just ten years.

Most recently, the IPNW Clinic won the first reversal of a conviction in Washington based on newly discovered DNA evidence. The Washington Court of Appeals granted Ted Bradford a new trial and reversed his 1996 rape and burglary convictions on the basis of post-conviction DNA evidence. The IPNW was previously involved in overturning convictions in the Wenatchee sex-ring investigations. Forty-three people were charged with more than 29,000 counts of sexual abuse involving some 50 children. Many of the accused were poor, uneducated or developmentally disabled.

Tickets: Purchase tickets on-line: General Public $50 // Friends of IPNW $100 // Angels $250. $25 student or limited income tickets are also available. The fair market value of the event is $25.

After-party: Following the screening of "The Trials of Darryl Hunt", the IPNW Clinic will host a reception at the Burke Museum (located just 3 short blocks from the Varsity Theatre on the northwest corner of the UW campus at the corner of 17th Ave and NE 45th St.). There will be complimentary hors d'oeuvres and beer and wine.

RSVP today!

About the film:

In 1984, Deborah Sykes, a copy editor at a newspaper in Winston-Salem, NC, was on her way to work when she was attacked by a man who raped and killed her. Three men were identified by the police as likely suspects -- Sammy Mitchell, Johnny Gray, and Darryl Hunt -- but it didn't take long for investigators to single out Hunt as the man who committed the brutal crime. Coverage of the case in the Winston-Salem Sentinel, the paper Sykes worked for, fueled public outrage and many called for swift justice against Hunt.

However, Hunt stubbornly declared his innocence, and even declined an opportunity for a plea bargain agreement because he was determined to prove he did not commit the crime. Hunt was found guilty and given a life sentence, but civil rights advocates believed he had been railroaded, especially given the racial tension the trial generated in this Southern community -- Sykes was white and Hunt was black, while the jury that delivered the verdict was nearly all white and some of the most damning testimony, later to be found to be inaccurate, was given by a man with ties to the Ku Klux Klan. A second trial in 1989 also resulted in a guilty verdict, but in 1994 DNA testing proved that Hunt was not the man who committed the crime. However, no North Carolina court was willing to accept this new evidence, and it wasn't until 2004 that Hunt was finally exonerated and released.

Filmmakers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg began following the Darryl Hunt case in 1994, and ten years of research and interviews went into the making of The Trials of Darryl Hunt, a documentary following his long and painful road to eventual justice. Produced for the premium cable network HBO, The Trials of Darryl Hunt was screened to enthusiastic reviews at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide