Raleigh, N.C. ? A man who served 18 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit has been pardoned by the North Carolina governor and could be eligible for $360,000 in compensation.

“I’m ecstatic about the pardon and I’m very thankful to the governor … and all the people who supported me,” Darryl Hunt said Friday, the day after Gov. Mike Easley issued the pardon.

Hunt was twice convicted of the 1984 murder of Deborah Sykes, who was raped and killed as she walked to her job as a copy editor at the now-defunct Winston-Salem Sentinel.

Hunt was freed after 18 years in prison in December when DNA evidence led police to another man, who confessed to the killing and said he acted alone. A judge vacated the charges against Hunt in February.

Easley said in a brief statement that he gave the case “careful, extensive review and consideration.”

Hunt’s attorneys asked Easley almost eight weeks ago to issue a “pardon of innocence.” People receiving a pardon of innocence are allowed to apply to the state Industrial Commission for $20,000 in compensation for each year they are imprisoned.

Hunt, 39, said he has used his time since his release from prison in December speaking out against capital punishment and starting on what he hopes will be a career helping others.

Darryl Hunt and his wife, April Hunt, look over a copy of his pardon from Gov. Mike Easley at their home in Winston-Salem, N.C. Hunt, who was convicted in 1990 of killing a Winston-Salem newspaper employee, then cleared this winter through DNA evidence, has been pardoned.

He is studying at Winston-Salem State University and wants eventually to work with children and former inmates, he said. The state settlement money will help him pay for his schooling and the house he and his wife, April, hope to buy.

Evelyn Jefferson, Sykes’ mother, said she still believed that Hunt was somehow involved in her daughter’s death despite the DNA evidence.

“I actually thought Governor Easley was more intelligent than that,” she told the Winston-Salem Journal from her home outside Chattanooga, Tenn.

Hunt was freed Dec. 24 after DNA testing in the Sykes’ case identified the new suspect, Willard Brown. Brown has since been charged with murder, rape, kidnapping and robbery. No court date has been set for Brown, who is being held without bond.

Since he became governor in 2001, Easley has received five requests for a “pardon of innocence.” He had granted only one before Thursday, to Lesly Jean, a former U.S. Marine who was convicted in 1982 of raping a Jacksonville woman. Jean, like Hunt, was cleared by DNA testing.