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Man claiming innocence in 1987 rape released on parole

Willie Grimes, a 65-year-old Catawba County man whose 1988 rape conviction is under review by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission has been released from prison on parole, his attorney says.

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RALEIGH, N.C. — A Catawba County man who has served nearly 24 years in prison for a rape he maintains he did not commit is out of prison on parole.

Christine Mumma, an attorney for Willie James Grimes, 65, said he was released Monday from the Gaston Correctional Center, where he was imprisoned for raping a 69-year-old Hickory woman in October 1987.

"I really feel good because it's been a long time, and I didn't know what freedom has been for a long time," Grimes said in a phone interview with The Associated Press after his release.

He said he was both excited and nervous because prison kept him on a tight schedule of sleeping, eating, showering and even deciding what he could watch on TV.

"Now I'm free to do it when I want to," said Grimes, adding that he had hoped to have chitlins for lunch but hadn't found anywhere serving them.

He also was waiting for his older sister, his only surviving relative, to arrive from Kings Mountain. Five brothers and one sister died while he was behind bars, he said.

Grimes had to register as a sex offender and then go with a probation officer who reviewed his living arrangements, according to Mumma, who is also the director of the Durham-based North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence.

Mumma said she unsuccessfully tried to delay the sex offender registration until after a special three-judge panel hears his case to decide if his conviction should be overturned.

In April, the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission – the only state agency in the country dedicated to considering wrongful convictions – unanimously agreed that there is enough new to refer Grimes' case to the panel.

Superior Court Judge Timothy Kincaid will schedule dates for the innocence hearing. Judges who will hear the innocence case are: Union County Judge David Lee, Orange/Chatham County Judge Carl Fox and Buncombe County Judge Sharon Barrett.

In July 1988, Grimes was sentenced to life behind bars for two counts of first-degree rape and nine additional years for one count of second-degree kidnapping. He was eligible for release under a parole program available to inmates convicted of crimes before 1994

Grimes has always maintained his innocence, even refusing to participate in prison programs that could have helped him reduce his sentence because he would have to acknowledge guilt and express remorse, Mumma has said.

Among the physical evidence presented to the commission for its review were fingerprints found on bananas in the victim's home. The victim, who has since died, told investigators that her attacker took fruit from a bowl in the kitchen of her apartment before he left. Investigators found banana peels outside the house and fruit that had been moved from the bowl and left on the kitchen table

An analyst testified before the innocence commission in April that the fingerprints matched a different man, who had a lengthy criminal record of misdemeanors, including assault on a female. That man is living at a nursing home in Lenoir.

Other than the fingerprints, all other physical evidence in the case has inexplicably disappeared even though no one has found any court order to destroy it. The Hickory Police Department found the fingerprint cards after the commission began investigating.

Since it was formed six years ago, the Innocence Commission has received more than 1,100 innocence claims. As of April, its work has cleared three people and closed more than 950 of the cases.

A recent study by the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law found that more than 2,000 people across the U.S. have been exonerated after wrongful convictions since 1989.

An estimated 23 million felony convictions occurred during that time span.

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