Mark Rabilhad been practicing law for four years when he was court-appointed to assist a senior partner in his law firm in representing Darryl Hunt, a 19-year-old black man charged with assaulting, raping, sodomizing and stabbing to death Deborah Sykes, a young white, newspaper reporter. Rabil represented Hunt for 20 years through trials, hearings, investigations, appeals, and clemency and pardon proceedings. In the summer of 1993, post-conviction hearings regarding witness intimidation and discovery violations led to DNA tests proving that neither Mr. Hunt nor another suspect, Sammy Mitchell, was involved in the rape of Ms. Sykes.

 

Since 2003, Rabil has been an assistant capital defender in North Carolina and represents individuals who are charged with first-degree murder and face the death penalty. Rabil has served the Wake Forest University School of Law as a supervising attorney for the Clinical Program since 1983 and as an adjunct professor of trial advocacy since 2003. In 2004, the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers awarded Rabil the Thurgood Marshall Award for his work representing Mr. Hunt.

 

The story of Darryl Hunt’s case is told in Ricki Stern and Annie Sunberg's award-winning documentary, The Trials of Darryl Hunt.

 

About Campbell Law School: Since its founding in 1976, the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University has developed lawyers who possess moral conviction, social compassion and professional competence, and who view the law as a calling to serve others. The School has been recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA) as having the nation’s top Professionalism Program and by the American Academy of Trial Lawyers for having the nation’s best Trial Advocacy Program. Campbell Law boasts more than 3,200 alumni, including 2,200 who reside and work in North Carolina. For 21 years, Campbell Law’s record of success on the North Carolina Bar Exam has been unsurpassed by any other North Carolina law school. In September 2009, Campbell Law relocated to a new state-of-the-art building in downtown Raleigh. For more information, visit law.campbell.edu.