On September 6, 1976, Josephine and Aileen Davis, who were mother and daughter, were found dead in
Elizabethtown, North Carolina. Both had been beaten and stabbed multiple times. Joseph Sledge, Jr., then 34 years old, who had escaped a day prior to the murders from minimum-security White Lake Prison Camp on September 5, was suspected by police, who issued a warrant for his arrest. Sledge was spotted on September 7 driving a stolen '69 Chevrolet in Fayetteville but eventually escaped on foot after an extended car chase. The next day he was arrested in Dillion and brought in for questioning. Sledge had been serving a 4-year sentence for misdemeanour
larceny and claimed to have jumped the fence to escape the prison camp due to beatings and threats against his life. He led police to where he had escaped and showed them his escape route to where he had stolen the car. Sledge was sent back to prison. The police interviewed other prisoners who Sledge subsequently spent time in prison with following the murders, and in February, 1978 he was formally charged after two inmates, Herman Baker and Donnie Sutton, claimed that he had confessed to the crimes while in prison. During the trial in May the same year, Sledge denied that he had committed the crimes, and after two days of deliberation, the trial resulted in a
hung jury. Sledge was set on trial again in August, 1978; however, this time the jury convicted him of
second-degree murder and he received two back-to-back life sentences. He appealed to the
North Carolina Supreme Court the next year, but his efforts failed to acquit him of the crime. Sutton was deceased by this time, but records show that he also received early parole and a reward of $2,000. The North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, who helped to investigate the case, also learned that the prosecution had not shown to the jury key evidence that put Sledge's guilt in doubt. For instance, in initial interviews with Sutton, he had denied that Sledge had admitted the crime and only later changed his story. They also discovered that during the case the prosecution had also failed to tell the jury that there was a second suspect who lived 500 yards away, where a shoe print was found that resembled the bloody prints found at the Davis house where the two women were killed. The decision was made that Sledge would receive $750,000 in recompense for wrongful incarceration. The current District Attorney of
Bladen County, although he was not the prosecutor at the time of the original trials, apologised to Sledge, saying “There's nothing worse for a prosecutor than convicting an innocent person.” He also stated that the case would be re-opened to find the real killer. ==Improper testing of evidence==