Forsyth County Superior Court Judge Anderson Cromer...

Forsyth County Superior Court Judge Anderson Cromer officially exonerated Darryl Hunt, 40, in the 1984 murder of Deborah Sykes. Hunt had been freed from jail on Christmas Eve. DNA evidence cleared Hunt and connected another man to the crime. That man, Willard E. Brown, has since confessed to the rape and murder. Brown was identified in December last year through DNA testing. When DNA tests showed that he was not the man who had raped Deborah Sykes in 1984, Darryl Hunt said he thought he'd be released after serving almost 10 years in prison. But it took another 10 years for Hunt to walk out of prison for good. As a result of the DNA evidence, police and prosecutors changed their theory of the crime. And every state and appellate judge the matter came before turned down a chance to review the case. Brown has been charged with Sykes' rape and murder but hasn't faced trial yet. The case stoked racial hostility for 2 decades. Hunt is black; Sykes was white.