WINSTON-SALEM -- A life in the headlines and a death no one could have predicted. Sunday morning, Darryl Hunt was found dead in a parked car in Winston-Salem, the same city where he changed the criminal justice system.
Hunt was 19 years old when he went to prison for a brutal murder he did not commit. After 19 years behind bars, he was exonerated in the death of Deborah Sykes.
But instead of being angry about what happened, Hunt decided to make a difference and help free people like him who were wrongly convicted
"He worked tirelessly," Tanya Wiley, Hunt's publicist and friend, said. "Fighting for others to make sure that they did not have to endure what he had to endure."
Hunt joined the Innocence Project at Wake Forest University, an organization that works to free people who were wrongfully imprisoned.
"He just felt like he had to give back, that was a phrase I heard him say a lot," Hunt's attorney, Mark Rabil, explained. "He had to give back."
Hunt also started his own non-profit, The Darryl Hunt Project for Freedom and Justice.
"He actually started a project to help people who came out of prison. To welcome them home. To help people so that they wouldn't go back into prison," Rabil said.
The non-profit offers job training, education and support for people reentering society, after serving time in prison.
According to friends of Hunt, he was being treated for Stage IV cancer at the time of his death.
The cause of death has not been released, but an autopsy was scheduled on Monday. WFMY News 2 is on top of this story and will update you as soon as the report is released.
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