Courts - North Carolina Man innocent of murder gets $750,000 Compensation comes to about $5 an hour

By Martha Waggoner Associated Press Writer RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A North Carolina man who served almost 17 years in prison for murder before being found innocent figures that the $750,000 he received in compensation from the state comes to about $5 an hour for his time behind bars. "Every time I think about spending it, I think about an hour in prison," Greg Taylor said Thursday. Taylor, 48, appeared Monday before a brief hearing of the N.C. Industrial Commission, which approved his state compensation. Gov. Beverly Perdue pardoned Taylor in May, a necessary step before the commission could hand out the check. State law allowed him to apply for compensation from the state for $50,000 a year up to a maximum of $750,000. He said he received the money Tuesday and deposited it, although he hasn't spent any of it. Taylor plans to repay his family for the money they spent on attorneys and investigators on their quest to prove he didn't kill Jacquetta Thomas. That quest ended in February, when a three-judge panel found him innocent of killing Thomas. The judges got the case from the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission, the only state-run agency in the country dedicated to proving a convicted person's innocence. His was the first exoneration to result from the commission's work. Taylor was convicted in 1993 of killing Thomas, a prostitute whose beaten body was found on a deserted cul-de-sac in Raleigh in September 1991. Taylor said he and a friend went to the cul-de-sac to smoke crack cocaine and his sport utility vehicle became stuck there. He was questioned and charged after he returned to retrieve the SUV. Taylor continues to live with his daughter, Kristen Puryear, and her husband, Charles, at their home in Durham. He hasn't started looking for a job yet, although he hopes eventually to take courses and be certified as a Web site designer. Meanwhile, Taylor says he is taking baby steps as he adjusts to life outside prison. For example, he has gotten a driver's license again with restrictions that include a ban on driving between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. for five years. "I'll be free in 2015," Taylor said. Published: Fri, Jul 2, 2010

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