Death row inmate questions evidence
By John Joyce and Kenneth Fine
Published in News on January 8, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Eric Lane, center, looks at attorney Glenn Barfield, left, after Barfield was removed as Lane's attorney by Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Arnold O. Jones at the Wayne County Courthouse Wednesday afternoon. Lane was convicted and sentenced to death in 2005 for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 5-year-old Precious Whitfield. Also pictured is lead defense attorney Michael Unti.
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News-Argus file photo
Precious Whitfield was 5 years old when she left for a bike ride and never came home May 17, 2002.
New evidence could potentially exonerate a man who has been on death row for nearly 10 years after a Wayne County jury convicted him in 2005 of the 2002 kidnapping, rape and murder of 5-year-old Precious Ebony Whitfield.
Eric Glenn Lane, 44, appeared in Courtroom No. 1 Wednesday afternoon for a hearing that centered around whether or not attorney Glenn Barfield could, legally, continue to represent the man.
But what unfolded inside Courtroom No. 1 shed new light into Lane's claim that he is not the person who should die for committing one of the most infamous crimes in local history.
Barfield and co-counsel Michael L. Unti said they hope biological evidence, including the sexual assault evidence collection kit, will, when tested by Sorenson Genomics in Salt Lake City, Utah, point to someone else.
"We have good reason to believe there is a third party that could be identified," Barfield said.
And should that occur, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Arnold Jones would then have to decide whether the evidence constitutes a new trial.
"I've been waiting for a long time to get this stuff tested," Lane told the court over and over again. "A long time."
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The Lane case began May 17, 2002, when a little girl never came home from her bike ride.
Precious' body would ultimately be discovered by fishermen two days later in Nahunta Creek, wrapped in a trash bag that had been secured in a blue tarp -- her bicycle not far away.
And when witnesses told investigators they had seen a white man on a red scooter carrying a tarp-covered bundle near the intersection of Big Daddy's Road and Lancaster Road the night Precious went missing, lawmen zeroed in on Lane.
A red scooter with blue fibers on it was found inside Lane's home, as was a vacuum cleaner that investigators said looked as though it had recently been used.
And Lane would later confess -- both orally and in writing -- to raping and killing the 5-year-old.
Barfield is not concerned about the fact that his client admitted to the crime.
"There are real questions about that statement," he said, adding that confessions existed in a dozen or more death row cases that have been overturned by DNA evidence in recent years. "In none of those cases was the existence of a confession a real issue."
Neither Barfield nor Unti would comment on who the third party might be, but both are confident the DNA will point to someone close to the case.
"We have a pretty good hunch," Unti said. "We'll just say that much."
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Lane ended up in Courtroom No. 1 Wednesday after the U.S. Attorney General's Office of the State of North Carolina -- represented by Nicholas Vlahos -- filed a motion to remove Barfield as Lane's attorney unless Lane waived his right to later allege that Barfield provided ineffective counsel.
Barfield joined Lane's legal team at the tail end of his 2005 trial and stayed on as Lane's attorney throughout the appeal process and remained counsel to the man after the N.C. State Supreme Court declined to overturn the appellate court's decision to uphold his conviction.
Barfield later filed a motion for appropriate relief on Lane's behalf, seeking a new trial should the testing of DNA materials be permitted.
Vlahos told Jones that due to Barfield's prior involvement in the case, the state was concerned that Lane could, at a later date, claim ineffective counsel and force a new trial, regardless of what the new evidence might reveal.
Vlahos declined to comment, but won a victory of sorts when Jones dismissed Barfield after holding a lengthy and candid conversation with Lane -- and after allowing Barfield and Unti time to explain, to their client, why the move was necessary.
And when it became clear that Lane was uncomfortable with the prospect of losing Barfield's expertise, Jones told him that the attorney could witness the collection and packaging of the evidence that will soon be sent to Utah -- a concession made by the court that seemed to both comfort Lane and appease Vlahos.
Jones said there was no need for Lane, himself, to be present later this month when the evidence is collected, but said he anticipates seeing him again this spring -- when the results of the DNA analysis are ready for the court to review.
The results of the tests ordered Wednesday should either result in a new trial for Lane, identify someone else as the murderer, or, once and for all, seal Lane's fate -- death by lethal injection.