I DID IT: A dying inmate is having a hard time convincing the right people he committed a Raleigh murder. Craig Taylor says he, and not Greg Taylor (no relation) killed a woman. Greg Taylor's case recently went before the Innocence Inquiry Commission, which found reason to believe Greg Taylor shouldn't be locked up, partly because Craig Taylor knew specific details about the murder.

But Craig Taylor has confessed to other murders and officials say he is confessing to murders because he is dying. (N&O)

THIRD PARTIES GET ANOTHER SHOT: The state Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a state law that forces third political parties to collect tens of thousands of signatures to get on North Carolina's ballot. But the court's split decision means the case will likely be heard again. (AP)

A LITTLE BIT MORE: Duke Energy has pared down a rate hike request in a compromise with regulators. If the N.C. Utilities Commission agrees, a 7 percent hike would be phased in over two years. (Char-O)

* Mobile phones can make their way into state prisons in hollowed-out books and hidden inside tennis balls tossed over fences.

Often, they're smuggled in to inmates by prison employees looking to make quick cash.

Now guards caught smuggling mobile phones or cigarettes to inmates could find themselves locked up. A new law signed Friday by Gov. Beverly Perdue makes it a crime to sell or give state inmates wireless communications devices or tobacco products, punishable by up to 120 days in jail.

Correction Secretary Alvin W. Keller Jr. was among several leaders across the country who recently signed a petition to the Federal Communications Commission, seeking permission to scramble mobile phone signals in prisons. (N&O)

* A two-day hearing for a Cary man who claims he's innocent of killing a Raleigh prostitute nearly 18 years ago will be open to the public.

Nash County Superior Court Judge Quentin Sumner, the chairman of the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission, decided to grant a request to open a hearing concerning the 1993 murder conviction of Greg F. Taylor.

Taylor, convicted of charges in the death of a prostitute, maintains his innocence. The hearing is the third case to come before the state's innocence commmission. (N&O)

* Perdue says the state has not ruled out Las Vegas-style card games at Harrah's Cherokee Casino.

The state and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have no ongoing negotiations, said Perdue, who was in Jackson County on Monday for the grand opening of Sequoyah National Golf Club.

The Eastern Band has long sought state approval for live gambling. The casino is limited to video gambling machines and digital blackjack with a live dealer. A bitter exchange between then-Gov. Mike Easley and Hicks in 2006 followed an abrupt end to negotiations between the tribe and state.

The tribe estimates an expansion would bring $35 million in state taxes and an annual payroll of $100 million a year. (AC-T)

At first glance at a news release from the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission, it wasn't clear whether a former Plymouth police officer's conviction would stand.

The headline, in bold, read: "Man Declared Innocent Seven Years after Conviction (or Man's Conviction upheld in Innocence Hearing)."

Chalk it up to the commission being overly prepared. Grace Wallace, the commission's office manager, said a staffer had prepared a draft with both potential outcomes, planning to edit it to reflect what happened once the three-judge panel ruled.

That way, the commission would get the news out sooner. But the staffer forgot to edit the headline.

The body of the news release reported the actual outcome. The panel upheld Henry Archie Reeves III's seven-year-old conviction on taking indecent liberties with a child.

A Fayetteville man whose case gained national attention after he appeared on "60 Minutes" continues to fight to prove his innocence.

After losing his final appeal in state court, Lee Wayne Hunt —who says he was wrongly convicted and imprisoned for a double murder —has submitted his case to the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission, said Rich Rosen, a law professor at UNC-Chapel Hill handling the case, reports Titan Barksdale.

The commission was established in 2006 to review credible claims of innocence in North Carolina. Hunt was convicted in 1986 and sentenced to two life sentences for the shooting deaths of Roland and Lisa Matthews in Fayetteville.

"60 Minutes" featured Hunt's case because it is one of hundreds nationwide where prosecutors used a faulty bullet analysis to help win a conviction. The analysis of the lead composition in bullets has since been debunked.

Additionally, Hunt's co-defendant confessed to being the sole killer — a confession that remained secret until the man died and his lawyer disclosed it last year.

Kendra Montgomery-Blinn, executive director of the commission, said she could not comment on any pending case.

If Hunt's case is accepted and heard by the eight-member commission, it could send the case before a three-judge panel that has the authority clear Hunt.