USA - North Carolina. Gov. Beverly Perdue pardoned Greg Taylor

Gov. Beverly Perdue pardoned Greg Taylor this afternoon, clearing the way for the man to collect a payment from the state for 17 years of wrongful imprisonment. Taylor was exonerated on February 17 (see) by a three-judge panel who dismantled a murder conviction that robbed him of nearly 2 decades of freedom. He was the 1st North Carolinian freed through the Innocence Inquiry Commission, a pioneering group created in 2006 to examine claims of innocence. Taylor could now collect $750,000 in compensation from the state for its mistake. Taylor was convicted in 1993 of murder in the 1991 death of Jacquetta Thomas, a woman who was beaten to death.