U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield released a letter criticizing Wilson's District Attorney for its handling of James Johnson's criminal case.

Johnson was jailed for three years for the murder of Brittany Willis. Johnson, 21, was freed in December pending a review of his case, and the murder, rape and kidnapping charges against him were dropped because of a lack of evidence, Titan Barksdale reports.

"We don’t hold North Carolina citizens in jail without evidence," Butterfield said in the letter. "And we don’t mislead the families of victims who are suffering from the tragic loss of a loved one."

Willis, a 17-year-old Wilson girl, was abducted from a shopping center, raped and killed in 2004.

Another man, Kenneth Meeks, who was 16 at the time, acted alone in the crimes. He initially said Johnson was involved in the slaying before recanting.

A prosecutor outside of Wilson who reviewed Johnson's case charged him with accessory after the fact to murder. The accessory charge against Johnson is based on his statement that he cleaned his own fingerprints from Willis' SUV. After killing Willis, Meeks drove her SUV to Johnson's house to pick him up.

Butterfield, a former Superior Court judge, has also called for a federal investigation of whether Johnson's constitutional rights have been violated.