Halifax County District Attorney Melissa Pelfrey today declined to name the specific cases until she has contacted the family members of those involved.
The earliest case dates to 1987 and the other two follow the 1987 to 2003 timeline for which Cooper requested the independent review, Pelfrey told rrspin.com. She said it is too early to determine whether there will be any retrials.
While Pelfrey declined to name the cases, the serology case review found on the state Department of Justice website shows them to be following:
• Joe Cephus Johnston Jr. and Morris Wayne Johnston Jr. Joe Johnston Jr. was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder in 1994 and Morris Johnston pled guilty to first-degree murder in 1995. Morris Johnston was released from prison in 2000. The murder occurred in Roanoke Rapids.
• Russell Scott, pled guilty to second-degree murder in Enfield in 1993.
• Kenneth Jerome Martin, charged in 1995 for felony hit and run but has no state Department of Correction record and no disposition was available.
The issue involves the analysis of approximately 15,000 tests conducted between 1987 and 2003 by the State Bureau of Investigation.
Pelfrey said in a prepared statement in 2003 the type of blood tests reviewers were looking at were discontinued in favor of other testing such as DNA. “This review found 230 instances in which the lab report did not accurately reflect all of the information found in the analysts’s notes.”
Of the 230 cases, 40 did not produce criminal charges. What happened in the local cases, Pelfrey said, was lab tests could not consistently say there was blood present and the data did not report that confirming tests were negative.
In her statement, Pelfrey says, “As a prosecutor, I am called upon to seek justice and no justice comes from the misstating of evidence in any case. Please know that my office, together with the law enforcement agencies involved in these three cases, have already begun to look into the cases that were included in the list published pursuant to the independent review.”
Pelfrey said when her review is complete and she has had the opportunity to speak with those involved, she will report her findings to the public. “It is my intent to review each of these cases to assure that justice is served for both the people who were charged as defendants in these matters as well as the people who were the victims in these cases.”
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Halifax County has three cases included in Attorney General Roy Cooper’s review of the SBI forensic lab.
Lance Martin
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