HBO Presents: The Trials of Darryl Hunt

In 1984, Deborah Sykes, a young white newspaper reporter, was assaulted, raped, sodomized and stabbed to death just blocks from where she worked in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Though no physical evidence implicated him, Darryl Hunt, a 19-year-old black man, was ultimately convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison. Ten years later, DNA testing proved that Hunt did not rape Sykes, and cast serious doubts on his involvement in her murder, but he spent another decade behind bars for a crime he did not commit.

The eye-opening HBO documentary The Trials of Darryl Hunt, tells his riveting story – and the story of those who fought to clear his name – when it debuts this Thursday, April 26 at 8:00 p.m. exclusively on HBO.

More than a decade in the making, Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg’s documentary examines a community and criminal justice system subject to racial bias and tainted by fear. Told from the point of view of the principal subjects – Mark Rabil, the unyielding defense attorney, and Hunt, the wrongly convicted man – the film challenges the assumption that all Americans have access to unbiased justice.

For more information, visit the film's website.