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| Inmate, 81, Asks N.C. Gov. to Consider Clemency |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/03/2003 |
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A prisoner who says he was wrongly convicted of murder in the killings in 1957 of two state troopers has asked Gov. Mike Easley to grant him clemency. The attorney for 81-year-old Frank Wetzel wrote to Easley asking him to review his case and release Wetzel, who is serving two consecutive life sentences. Wetzel has been eligible for parole since 1977, but, his attorney said, the N.C. Parole Commission, which has repeatedly denied his release, can't judge the case fairly. 'It is time for Frank Wetzel to be allowed to live a life outside of prison walls,' Mark Edwards, a lawyer in Durham, said in the letter dated Wednesday. 'Despite the fact that Mr. Wetzel has been parole eligible for decades, it is quite apparent that the Parole Commission is never going to release him,' Edwards wrote in his petition. Wetzel was found guilty of first-degree murder in the killings of Troopers W.L. Reece and James Brown. Reece was shot to death on U.S. 220 near Ellerbe. Brown was shot on U.S. 1 near Sanford. Wetzel has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, and his supporters have said that the evidence against him is shaky. Prosecutors also had evidence leading to his conviction. Before dying in surgery, Brown described the gunman's black 1957 Oldsmobile, which eventually led police to Wetzel. A car matching that description was discovered in Tennessee. Inside, the FBI found Wetzel's fingerprints on a North Carolina license plate, a .44-caliber Magnum pistol, several .22-caliber guns and several boxes of ammunition. Wetzel was arrested two weeks later in California. Wetzel admitted that, at the time of the 1957 crimes, he was driving south in a stolen car after escaping from a prison hospital in New York State. |
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