With the governor’s signature, North Carolina will become the first state in the nation to establish an Innocence Inquiry Commission.
It’s an idea pushed heavily by retired N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr. The innocence commission is also a topic of discussion for this weekend’s Carolina Journal Radio.
A chief supporter — Rep. Rick Glazier, D-Cumberland — tells CJ Radio:
It’s a really important bill to create a failsafe in our system for one of the few times that happen where we end up convicting the wrong person, and the real murderer or the real rapist is free at large. And so for society’s protection — as well as to get it right and not have an innocent person in jail — this commission can get to the core of who’s really guilty and who’s really innocent quicker.
Rep. Joe Kiser, R-Lincoln, a former sheriff, disagrees:
I think it just creates a new layer of the judiciary, and I believe our court systems are working fine. And all the names mentioned on the floor [during legislative debate] of people who were innocent were found innocent through the regular court system. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. And I don’t believe our judiciary is broken.
