Death Row Inmate Granted New Trial; Critical Evidence Withheld

     A Bertie County, North Carolina judge has thrown out the 1998 murder conviction of death row inmate Alan Gell and has ordered a new trial because prosecutors withheld importance evidence that could have been used to exonerate Gell at his trial. The ruling was the first in which a state Superior Court judge has overturned a death sentence after only hearing arguments from lawyers. Among the evidence not revealed was a secretly taped 1995 telephone conversation in which the prosecution's star witness said she "had to make up a story" about the murder. Assistant Attorney General Steven Bryant admitted that the state should have turned over the exculpatory evidence. Gell has always maintained his innocence, and his case was recently the subject of a four-part News & Observer series. Prosecutors must now determine whether they will retry Gell or drop the charges against him.