I. Beverly Lake Jr., a conservative Republican elected chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court in 2000, had read newspaper accounts that showed some men might have been wrongfully convicted of violent crimes. In some cases, DNA evidence eventually proved that they had not committed the crimes.

Lake worried about the wrongful convictions -- and about public confidence in the courts.

Then Lake was hit by a force of nature.

His former law clerk, Christine Mumma, was convinced the system had serious flaws. She had the will, the energy and a key connection -- Lake -- to force the issue.

In 2002, she persuaded Lake to create a committee to study wrongful convictions.

Since then, Mumma has liberated Dwayne Dail, who spent half his life in prison for a rape he didn't commit, and she has been a key player in pushing legislation that seeks to prevent wrongful convictions.

For her work in making North Carolina's criminal justice system better, Mumma is The N&O's 2007 Tar Heel of the Year.

That honor is an extension of one of our most-loved features, The Tar Heel of the Week. We published our first one in 1950 and it is surely one of the oldest continuously published features in a daily newspaper.

Mumma, 45, is our 11th Tar Heel of the Year. She's the youngest and one of the most direct and forceful, as described in today's front-page story.

When Publisher Orage Quarles III and I beckoned her to our office to tell her of our selection, she teared up and was momentarily quiet. Mumma later told Lake that she was speechless.

To which Lake told her: "That's hard to imagine."

It is, indeed. Mumma has a magnetic personality and a high-octane style. "I've never met anybody quite like her," Lake said. "She's engaged in life and driven to succeed in whatever her objective is."

That made her a great subject for reporter Samiha Khanna.

Unlike some previous Tar Heels of the Year, Mumma opened her life to Khanna, who even had Thanksgiving dinner with Mumma, her husband, their three children and seven other family members.

Initially, Mumma was skeptical of opening up her life to a reporter. Khanna, however, can be persuasive.

Khanna started working for us after graduating from Elon University in 2003. She's polite, professional and has a knack for getting sources to talk openly.

When Mumma balked, Khanna told her, "The train has left the station. You better jump on."

Mumma did. It makes for an entertaining profile of a woman who has made a big difference.