Innocence hearing underway for man convicted in Bladen Co. double murder

RALEIGH, NC (WTVD) — The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission begins a 3-day hearing Wednesday in the case of a 70-year-old man who claims he did not kill a mother and her daughter in 1976.

Joseph Sledge has spent more than half his life in prison.

Eight members of the commission will hear evidence, and if they agree that Sledge’s claim merits further review, a three-judge panel will then determine whether he should be freed and exonerated.

Sledge escaped from a prison in Elizabethtown after an argument with another inmate in 1976. The same night, Josephine and Ailene Davis were stabbed to death.

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