The North Carolina NAACP is standing behind a Wilson man who spent three years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit.

NC NAACP leaders held a news conference Wednesday to comment on charges brought against James Johnson. Johnson was cleared of murder in the 2004 shooting death of Wilson teen Brittany Willis, because of a lack of evidence.

They say that Johnson was a victim of prosecutorial mishandling of the case, and they're asking for an investigation into possible civil rights violations.

"In James Johnson's case, it was James versus an arrogant injustice that was bent on blaming a young man for a death he had nothing to do with and prosecuting him for it," said William Barber, president of the NC NAACP.

Kenneth Meeks is serving life in prison for kidnapping, raping, and killing Willis. A few days after the murder, Johnson told police that Meeks had picked him up in Willis' stolen car, confessed to killing a young woman, then drove him to the scene of Willis' body. Johnson said he'd wiped his own fingerprints from the vehicle.

Johnson's supporters said he was wrongly punished for doing the right thing, and that he made the brave decision to go to police with knowledge of the murder.

"This man was overcharged from the beginning. When the system knew it, it refused to correct itself," Barber said.

NC NAACP leaders say Johnson's story is one of many cases of racial and socioeconomic injustices in the state's legal system.

"Are we just unlucky? Does it just happen?" Barber said. "Or are there deep and entrenched flaws in the system?"

Click here to read and watch comments from the NC NAACP and other Johnson supporters.