November 22, 2007
"This is it," Hunt thought. "This will prove, out of everything, this will be it."
The PCR method isolates standard sites along a strand of DNA for comparison. In 1994, there were eight standard sites. Today, crime labs look at 13 sites, or loci. These DNA segments are smaller than genes, but they are just as unique.
LabCorp finished in October. The lab made sure that the police had the right sample by testing the female cells found on the vaginal swab against the blood sample on Sykes' sweater. The DNA matched. But the semen didn't match Hunt's DNA. It was the first such certain physical evidence in the case, and it contradicted the prosecutor's closing argument and certainly Gray's testimony that it was Hunt he saw straddling Sykes, and Hunt who ran from the scene zipping up his fly.
Hunt's old and new attorneys held a news conference and declared victory. They figured he would at least get a new trial at a hearing scheduled before Judge Morgan the following month.
"This evidence not only frees Hunt," Ferguson announced, "it frees the prosecution to pursue the real killer."
Saunders saw it differently. He had spent months reviewing trial testimony and police reports and listening to the new defense witnesses in the case try to pin the murder on Gray. He had no doubt that Hunt and his running mate, Sammy Mitchell, committed the crime, and every reason to question the motives of the defense.
"It was clear to me that they weren't searching for the truth," Saunders said recently. "They were just trying to point their finger at someone other than their black man."
Saunders knew about the graphic imagery that Bowman had used in his closing arguments, how he had pointed at Hunt as the rapist. But Hunt could be guilty of Sykes' murder even if he hadn't raped her. As long as he was there, at the scene, just as the prosecution witnesses had testified, he was as guilty under the law of murdering Sykes as if he had held her down and stabbed her himself.
Saunders had Mitchell's DNA tested, and said he would seek the death penalty if the test came back positive. He had Gray tested, too. And he had Doug Sykes tested as a precaution, in case the semen had been left from an earlier sexual encounter between husband and wife.
On Nov. 3, four days before the hearing on the DNA, the results for Mitchell, Gray and Sykes came back. The DNA extracted from the semen sample didn't match any of them. The state's theory for the crime - that Hunt, Mitchell and perhaps even Gray had acted together to rape and murder Sykes - no longer held up.
"In my heart of hearts I think Darryl Hunt is going to walk out of jail very soon," Rabil said that day. "I think we are very, very close. But I won't rest until he does."
Keith, however, decided to oppose Hunt's release and a new trial. He said that once he thought about it he could find scenarios that fit the facts. It was possible that someone else raped Sykes, someone none of the witnesses identified, or that Hunt raped her too, without ejaculating.
"If the right thing is we have the wrong man, we're not afraid to stand up and say, 'We've got the wrong person,'" Keith said recently. "When we looked at it all, the DNA was not as significant as you think it is."
The Friday before the hearing, Hunt's supporters held a rally at Dellabrook Presbyterian Church, criticizing Keith for refusing to drop the case against Hunt.
"That is the nature of racism. That is the arrogance of power," said Larry Little, Hunt's longtime ally. "Their motto is 'If the shoe doesn't fit, then break the foot and put the shoe on.'"
The rally drew about 100 people for song and prayer. "Justice delayed is justice denied," people cried out. "Free Darryl Hunt." With DNA evidence now on his side, Hunt's case was an even stronger symbol of injustice.
"This situation is bigger than Darryl," the Rev. John Mendez said at the rally. "It made us fight for just about every black man who was in trouble in this city."
Monday morning, the fight resumed.
Once again, Hunt's supporters filled the courtroom. Once again, Evelyn Jefferson sat through another day of testimony about her daughter's murder. And again, Doug Sykes came to honor his wife's memory.
Saunders attacked the science. He questioned whether the sample had been tampered with and whether the sperm had been properly separated from the female cells collected from her body. He asked whether a mixture of sperm from more than one attacker might invalidate the results.
Richard Guerrieri, a forensic scientist with LabCorp, stood by his work and his conclusions. He was certain. The semen could not be from Hunt, Mitchell, Gray or Doug Sykes. In his closing argument, Saunders again questioned the science, but he didn't offer a single expert witness to contradict Guerrieri's work. And in the 10 years since then, the state found no evidence that the science was flawed.
To the contrary, in 1995, a year after the hearing, a second report by LabCorp, this one showing results from 10 DNA segments, concluded again that neither Hunt, Mitchell, Gray nor Doug Sykes was the source of the semen. The state requested the 1995 report because Hunt's lawyers had asked Keith to test two new suspects. The DNA results ruled them out, too.
Morgan called a three-day recess at the end of the 1994 DNA hearing. Hunt waited, skeptical of his chances simply because it was already taking longer than he or his attorneys had anticipated.