DURHAM -- This year, Derrick Michael Allen is seeing for the first time important information about the murder and sex assault case that was first brought against him 12 years ago.
He and his lawyer have asked for even more, citing apparent gaps in information from police and prosecution files that they have received.
It has been settled law in the United States since at least 1964 that defendants are entitled to receive evidence gathered by prosecutors that could be favorable or helpful to them.
Among the documents provided this year is a supplemental statement from a woman who a prosecutor said was the main witness in the murder case against Allen.
The witness had given police a primary statement that was read nearly word-for-word in court at his plea deal. In it, the woman, Zakia A. Ward, described Allen as punishing the child and possibly harming her about 90 minutes before she was reported as unconscious.
But Allen and his lawyers had not previously seen a second statement that showed that the woman and Allen previously had been sexual partners and had become "like enemies."
"We have kind of been like enemies - but we still talked to each other," Ward told police. "I definitely didn't have sex with him that day."
Lisa A. Williams, Allen's current lawyer, said information about a key witness describing herself as an enemy of Allen is material to his defense and clearly should have been provided to him from the beginning. It would have informed his decisions about going to trial and could have been used in cross-examining Ward, she said.
The responsibility to turn over such material falls to the prosecution. In this case, it was Durham prosecutor Freda Black. Black declined to comment on the case.
A new prosecutor, Mitchell Garrell, is now on the case, and he has provided the new information. His legal assistant said Garrell would not comment.
Williams, who has been representing Allen since February, has filed letters seeking other information apparently not yet provided, including a polygraph test of Ward by the SBI. Ward could not be reached.
Allen's lawyer also has requested medical records of the child that were apparently filed under a different name, and notes and other correspondence regarding apparent conversations between prosecutors and police and others, such as the SBI lab.
