Darryl Hunt, a man wrongly convicted of murder and exonerated after almost 20 years in jail, visited Champlain College on March 19 with his long time attorney, Mark Rabil. Mr. Hunt and Mr. Rabil took the stage in an emotional and moving Q&A with the audience at Alumni Auditorium immediately following the screening of the critically acclaimed documentary, The Trials of Darryl Hunt.

Mr. Hunt and Mr. Rabil also hosted several lectures at Champlain's Hauke Conference room on March 20, discussing Mr. Hunt's trials, convictions and subsequent exoneration, and opening a debate on the subject of race relations and justice in America. Their visit to Champlain was made possible in part by the efforts of Angela Batista and her staff in Champlain's Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion.
 
In 1984, 19-year-old Darryl Hunt was convicted of the rape and murder of a young, white newspaper reporter in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The documentary film reveals the negligence of the prosecution in trying Mr. Hunt, including its failure to follow relevant leads and its use of shady witnesses in providing testimony against the defendant. An all-white jury sentenced Hunt to life in prison. In 1994, DNA evidence proved he did not commit the rape, yet he would still spend another ten years behind bars before being exonerated on February 6, 2004. 

In the Q&A session, Mr. Rabil explained how a local reporter's inquisitiveness in the trials lead to an eight-part series in The Winston-Salem Journal, which in turn sparked a series of events that ultimately led to Mr. Hunt's release. Mr. Hunt explained how he managed to keep his faith throughout his harrowing ordeal, and how his exoneration in the light of true justice brought out a desire in him to help those people who are currently in prison due to wrongful convictions. He currently runs The Darryl Hunt Project for Freedom and Justice, based in his hometown of Winston-Salem.
 
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times describes The Trials of Darryl Hunt as "a powerful story of a miscarriage of justice that kept a black man in prison years after DNA testing cleared him of any crime."  Irv Letofsky of The Hollywood Reporter says that it "Plays like a dramatic feature... a gripper, full of classic elements that will excite your emotions."
 
This presentation was made possible in part through the generous support of Dinse,
Knapp & McAndrew P.C., Paul Frank & Collins P.C., the Vermont Bar Foundation, Gravel & Shea and Wick & Maddocks.

For more information on The Trials of Darryl Hunt, read full reviews and see a preview, visit www.breakthrufilms.org

Posted 03/21/08