Innocence Inquiry Commission: Sledge’s case merits judicial review

RALEIGH, NC (WWAY) — The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission has decided a 3-judge panel will hear the case of a 70-year-old man who claims he did not kill a mother and her daughter in 1976. The commission came to this unanimous decision after three days of testimony.

Joseph Sledge has spent more than half his life in prison, and today he’s testifying that he did not commit those murders. 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.

Sledge said he escaped the prison to avoid a confrontation with another inmate and was shocked to hear from someone a few days later that he was being sought for murder.

“They want you to turn yourself in for to be questioned about a murder that occurred in Bladen County, I said, ‘Oh my goodness! What happened?'” Sledge said during testimony.

During testimony Thursday, forensic and DNA experts said none of the physical evidence from the case ties Sledge to the crime. That physical evidence includes hair found at the crime scene and newly discovered fingerprints that were found in boxes of evidence uncovered in a storage locker in the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office. The former sheriff and deputies say they knew nothing about that evidence.

“They stated they had not searched them, that they had been locked for some time and that they didn’t have keys to the lock- to any of the locks,” said Sharon Stellato with the Innocence Inquiry Commission.

Other testimony included a jailhouse informant who said he was pressured by prison guards and detectives to lie on the witness stand. Sledge says he was set up by law enforcement because the trail leading to the real killer was going cold.

The commission says it could be several months before judges review Sledge’s case. Bladen County District Attorney Jon David was at the hearing when the decision was made to move the case to the judicial review.

“My commitment was to go wherever the truth leads,” David said. “The wheels of justice sometimes grind slowly.”