The North Carolina Attorney General's Office has requested that the state Supreme Court review an August decision to release two men after they spent nearly 20 years in state prison for a murder they claim they did not commit.

Special Deputy Attorney General Heidi M. Williams filed a petition Tuesday requesting the high court overturn an order issued by a judge in Forsyth County freeing the men from prison with no release conditions following multiple rejected appeals.

The state is requesting that the high court prevent the release of Rayshawn Banner and Nathaniel Cauthen, who were teenagers when they and two other boys were found guilty of the 2002 murder of Nathaniel Jones.

The petition was filed with the high court the same day that an appeals court upheld the trial court's decision to release Banner and Cauthen, according to the filing.

"On 8 August 2025, a single superior court judge, more than 20 years after the defendants' convictions were obtained, concluded that those convictions should be vacated and that the incarcerated defendants should be unconditionally released into the community," Williams said in the petition. "To allow such release before the state has had the opportunity to seek appellate review is unprecedented and would be perilous for our criminal justice system."

Prosecutors asked the high court to not only reverse the decision to release Banner and Cauthen, but to return them to prison pending the outcome of the appeal, citing public safety and the right of the state to mount its appeal.

The teenagers, all of whom are Black, had confessed to police, but during their 2004 trial requested that the confessions be suppressed. A trial judge heard four days of testimony before denying the motion, and the confessions were allowed to be presented, the petition said.

Banner and Cauthen, who were 14 and 15 respectively when the crime happened, were both convicted of murder and weapons violations and sentenced to life. The other teenagers were tried separately and sentenced to 12 years in prison, and were released in 2018, the filing said.

Banner and Cauthen have maintained their innocence and have mounted multiple appeals of their convictions, including a direct appeal and multiple post-conviction relief bids, all which were unsuccessful.

Cauthen also appealed in 2018 to the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, a state agency established in 2008 by the North Carolina General Assembly to investigate post-conviction claims of factual innocence, according to the agency's website.

Cauthen was later joined by Banner in the agency appeal. Following a 10-day hearing in April 2022, the commission found there was no evidence of the group's innocence, and tossed the appeal, the Tuesday filing said.

A year after their unsuccessful agency petition, Banner again filed for post-conviction relief in April 2023, this time pointing to newly discovered DNA evidence and recanted testimony from a key witness in their trial, the brief said.

A trial judge in Forsyth County disregarded objections from prosecutors and in September 2024 ordered a January hearing to examine the new evidence and consider the new testimony from the witness.

The trial court ruled in August of this year that the evidence was sufficient and ordered that Banner and Cauthen, now the only two defendants still in prison, be released without any probation requirements, the petition said.

Prosecutors immediately appealed, and a North Carolina appeals court on Tuesday refused to reverse the trial court's order, prompting the state to file its appeal with the North Carolina Supreme Court the same day.

The state asked the high court to order a retrial, claiming that because Banner and Cauthen were not acquitted there are no double jeopardy concerns, and the new evidence should be put before a jury.

A spokesperson for the attorney general's office declined to comment.

An attorney representing Banner and Cauthen did not respond to a request for comment.

The government is represented by Heidi M. Williams and Sherri Horner Lawrence of the North Carolina Department of Justice.

Banner and Cauthen are represented by Bradley J. Bannon and Trisha S. Pande of Patterson Harkavy LLP, and S. Mark Rabil, Christine C. Mumma and Michael T. Robertson of NC Center on Actual Innocence.

The case is State of North Carolina v. Rayshawn Denard Banner et al., case number 249P25, in the Supreme Court of North Carolina.

--Editing by Linda Voorhis.