North Carolina Lawyers Must Reveal Evidence Of Innocence After Conviction

North Carolina is the first state in the nation to require that all lawyers, not only prosecutors, must come forward with any evidence of innocence they become aware of after conviction. The North Carolina State Bar’s ethics committee began debating the rule about a year ago, and the state’s Supreme Court approved the rules earlier this year. North Carolina is also the only state to establish an Innocence Inquiry Commission to investigate claims of innocence. “We’re leading the country again,” Chris Mumma, director of the N.C. Center on Actual Innocence, told AP. Sixteen other states have made this reporting duty mandatory for prosecutors. The National Registry of Exonerations said their registry has tallied more than 2,000 exonerations since it began keeping records in 1989, and 166 within the last year.