State v. Taylor
North Carolina General Statute 15A-1468(e) States:
"All proceedings of the Commission shall be recorded and transcribed as part of the record. All Commission member votes shall be recorded in the record. All records and proceedings of the Commission are confidential and are exempt from public record and public meeting laws except that the supporting records for the Commission's conclusion that there is sufficient evidence of factual innocence to merit judicial review, including all files and materials considered by the Commission and a full transcript of the hearing before the Commission shall become public at the time of referral to the superior court. Commission records for conclusions of insufficient evidence of factual innocence to merit judicial review shall remain confidential..."
In the case of State v. Taylor, the Commission conducted a hearing on September 3 and 4, 2009. The Commission voted unanimously that there was sufficient evidence to merit judicial review. At that time, the case was referred forward to a three-judge panel. The documents presented at the Commission hearing became public record and are included below.
The transcripts of the hearing are available for viewing ONLY. The transcripts online are not available to print. If you would like to purchase a printed copy of the hearing transcript please contact Court Reporting Services at 919-832-4114 or crsdepo@crsdepo.com.
The final three-judge panel was held in Wake County from February 9, 2010 through February 17, 2010. At the conclusion of that hearing, the Judges ruled that Mr. Taylor had proven his innocence by clear and convincing evidence. The charges were dismissed and Mr. Taylor was set free. On May 21, 2010, Mr. Taylor received a pardon of innocence by North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue. You may contact the Wake County Courthouse for further information.
The documents and transcripts from the three-judge panel hearing were made a part of the official court file and are public record. You may contact the Wake County Clerk of Court if you wish to review those documents.
Please note that the web content does not include the full case file and only documents,videos, and reports that are public record from the Commission hearing are posted here.
The video is presented in FLASH media format and may not be viewable on some devices. The video is a large file and will take a moment to load.
To play a video please click on the title bar to open the viewing pane.
Some of these documents are very large. It may take a while to load and may not load properly on all devices. The documents are available below as PDFs.
Handouts provided to Commission during hearing
Taylor Hearing PowerPoint Presentation
Supplemental materials provided to the Commission during hearing
Telephone conversations presented at the Commission hearing:
08-01-2009 Telephone conversation between Craig Taylor and his mother
The Transcripts of the hearing are available for viewing ONLY. The transcripts online are NOT available to print. If you would like to purchase a copy of the hearing transcript please contact Court Reporting Services at 919-832-4114 or crsdepo@crsdepo.com.
