USA - North Carolina. Innocence Inquiry Commission recommended judicial review for Willie Henderson Womble.

Today the state Innocence Inquiry Commission in Raleigh unanimously recommended judicial review of 1975 murder conviction of Willie Henderson Womble. The Innocence Inquiry Commission is a state-run agency that investigates post-conviction claims of innocence. Mr. Womble did not receive the death penalty. But served 38 years in prison. Womble is currently assigned to a minimum-security prison in Caswell County. Dressed in a prison uniform and wearing handcuffs and shackles, Womble, 60, Black, testified that a police detective threw him to the ground, threatened him and forced him to sign a confession that he did not write. Womble, who is illiterate, said he didn't know what was in the statement and later refused to plead guilty to the Nov. 18, 1975, shooting death of Roy Brent Bullock during a robbery at a convenience store. After Womble's account and daylong testimony, the eight-member Innocence Commission panel unanimously voted to send his case to a special 3-judge panel for review. A jury found Womble guilty of 1st-degree murder on July 7, 1976, and he spent more than 30 years in prison before another man convicted of the crime sent a letter to the Innocence Commission - a state-run agency that investigates post-conviction claims of innocence - saying Womble had nothing to do with it. That man, Joseph Perry, said Monday that he decided to come forward only because the man who he says was actually with him, Albert Willis, died in 2012 and that he felt he would no longer be breaking a pact not to implicate him. Witnesses told the Innocence Commission that Womble repeatedly denied any involvement in Bullock's death, and during Womble's trial, a girl who witnessed the shooting could not identify Womble. Shirlyn Winters also told commissioners that Womble - a good friend of her husband - was with them the entire weekend of the crime and that they learned about it on TV while playing cards. The Innocence Commission took about an hour to make its decision, paving the way for North Carolina's chief justice to appoint within the next 30 days 3 judges to convene a special hearing about Womble's case. Since the Innocence Commission began its work on Nov. 1° 2006, it has received more than 1,600 claims that have resulted in 6 other cases being submitted for judicial review. Of those cases, 4 people have been exonerated.