Wrongly Convicted in
North Carolina
Appellate court refuses to give
Lee Wayne Hunt a new trial

As we give thanks this week over roasted Turkey, cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes, be sure to give thanks for the mere privilege of being free to do so. Just the ability to hold hands with friends and loved ones around the dinner table is one that is easy to take for granted, but one that not everybody in America shares.

One man who doesn’t have that freedom is Lee Wayne Hunt. In you are unfamiliar with the name, Lee Wayne Hunt is a man who has been in prison in North Carolina for over 20 years for two execution-style murders he apparently did not commit.

Hunt’s case has been in the news a lot recently, and the subject of a CBS 60 Minutes segment, because it has come to light that the FBI used fraudulent physical evidence to place him at the scene of the crime. 21 years ago an FBI scientist came to North Carolina and in a sworn testimony told jurors that he was able to match the lead content of the bullets found at the crime scene to a box of bullets connected to Hunt.

One of the problems with that testimony is that the FBI has now admitted that bullet-matching through lead analysis is basically a flawed science. Bullets within a single box can vary widely in their lead content whereas bullets from different batches can be almost identical in lead content.

“It was like him bringing in a gun and say(ing) that this is the murder weapon that was used to kill these people,” said Hunt of the FBI testimony. “It’s the same thing. He said that these are the bullets that come out of this box that killed these people.”

The other problem with the case against Hunt is that another person not only admitted to killing Roland and Lisa Matthews in Fayetteville, but also stated that Hunt was not there at the time of the crime. Jerry Cashwell, Hunt’s co-defendant in the 1986 trial, told his lawyer, Staples Hughes, that he had committed the murders alone. Because of the attorney-client privilege, Hughes was unable to reveal that knowledge, even as Hunt was convicted of the crime in a separate trial.

In 2003 Jerry Cashwell committed suicide in prison. Figuring that ended the attorney-client privilege, Hughes, now North Carolina’s top appellate lawyer for indigent defendants, came forward with his client’s admission. Hughes stated that Cashwell confessed that he was watching television with the victims when he became enraged about the TV volume.

“He just exploded,” said Hughes. “And he shot them and cut their throats. It had nothing to do with drugs.” Hughes said that his client remained consistent with his story for nearly two decades and always said that he committed the act alone.

“He felt bad about what happened to Lee Wayne,” said Hughes.

In January, Hughes asked a North Carolina appellate court to give Hunt a new trial based on Cashwell’s confession and the FBI admission that bullet lead matching science is inaccurate. The trial judge not only refused to give Hunt a new trial but also referred Hughes to the state bar for possibly violating attorney-client privilege, even though his client had been dead for four years.

“The thing that makes this so horrible is that Lee Wayne Hunt didn’t do it,” said Hughes. “That’s what makes it so terrible. He didn’t do it. He’s not guilty.”

Lee Wayne Hunt remains at the Johnston County Correctional Institution just east of Raleigh. During the past two decades he has taught himself to read and write.

“I never told nobody that I was an angel, that I didn’t do this and I didn’t do that,” said Hunt. “What I’ve said from the word get-go is that I ain’t never killed nobody.”