Supreme Court grants stay in Darryl Howard case
DURHAM (WTVD) -- Durham District Attorney Leon Stanback tells ABC11 that the North Carolina Supreme Court has notified him that his request for a temporary stay has been granted in the Darryl Howard case, which means Howard's release is on hold for now.
Howard, 52, wants to be freed on bail while prosecutors decide if they will re-try him 20 years after a double murder conviction marked by misconduct from Durham police and the prosecutor disbarred over the Duke lacrosse case.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals lifted a stay Tuesday, clearing the way for Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson to grant Howard bail.
Hudson previously ruled there was no physical evidence connecting Howard to the 1991 murders of a woman and her 13-year-old daughter - and overturned the conviction. The state must now decide if they will re-try him.
Howard was sentenced to 80 years in prison for strangling 29-year-old Doris Washington and her daughter, 13-year-old Nishonda, then burning their apartment. Both showed evidence of rape.
But at Howard's trial, former Durham prosecutor Mike Nifong and a police detective told jurors there was no evidence of sexual assault.
New DNA tests implicate another suspect.
