On April 12, Greg Taylor told Elon Law students about his incredible story, spending 17 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission recently found Taylor innocent after nearly two decades in prison for a first-degree murder conviction.
Hosted by Elon’s Innocence Project, Taylor and Christine Mumma, Esq., Director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, shared the emotional story of Taylor’s wrongful conviction for a 1993 Raleigh murder. Taylor was found innocent by a three-judge panel on February 17, 2010 after spending nearly 17 years in North Carolina prisons.
Mumma represented Taylor in those proceedings and also helped exonerate two other North Carolina men in the last three years.
“People like Greg Taylor are why the Innocence Project does what it does,” said Elon’s Innocence Project President, second-year student Parker Moore. “We may review ten to twenty cases in a given year and have no actual innocence claims arise. But when you find one like Greg Taylor’s, where you can actually make a positive impact on a person’s life and the system as a whole, it makes all of the other work worth it.”
The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission’s ruling in February marks the first in the state’s history in which a prisoner has been exonerated because of the involvement of the Innocence Commission – the only state-run agency in the country that investigates post-conviction claims of innocence.
“I tell my story for many reasons, but especially to show what a difference a dedicated, caring lawyer like Christine Mumma can make,” explained Taylor. “The lawyer who represented me during my 1993 trial presented no real defense and instead relied on the fact that he thought no reasonable jury would find me guilty. He basically put my life on his closing statement. When I called and asked for him to go over his closing statements with me, he said he was too busy mowing his lawn. I hope Elon Law students decide what kind of lawyer they want to be and decide to be more like Mumma and not like my trial lawyer.”
Click here for more information on the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission.
By Danielle Appelman, L’12
