(ASHEVILLE) -- After an innocence hearing in Asheville, two men who spent the last 10 years in prison are exonerated.  Ken Rose with the North Carolina Center for Death Penalty Litigation said the verdict raises questions about whether District Attorneys should be allowed to seek the death penalty against suspects.

Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson said they only pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2000 murder of Walter Rodney Bowman in Fairview because they were convinced by lawyers that they would lose in court and possibly face the death penalty. A bandana left at the scene of the murder was not tested for DNA because the men had pleaded guilty.

Rose said the decision by the three judge panel is another example of why the death penalty should be taken off the table. "It sometimes coerces persons to admit their guilt or to plead guilty or to confess when, in fact, as in this case, they didn't do the crime," said Rose.

The DNA on the bandana was recently tested.  The test ruled out Kagonyera and Wilsonson as murders in this case and another inmate has also admitted to the crime.

The bottom line, according to Rose, is that this exoneration casts doubt about prosecutors and law enforcement moving forward with a case without knowing all of the facts.

(Thanks to: WWNC)