I don't know if anyone remembers the Wilmington 10; but this news made me so happy today. Long time coming too.



 

North Carolina governor pardons 'Wilmington 10'

(CNN) -- Forty years after they were convicted by a jury of firebombing a grocery store in Wilmington, North Carolina, civil rights activists who became known as the "Wilmington 10" were pardoned Monday by the state's outgoing governor.

"These convictions were tainted by naked racism and represent an ugly stain on North Carolina's criminal justice system that cannot be allowed to stand any longer," said Gov. Beverly Purdue. "Justice demands that this stain finally be removed."

In 1972, nine black men and one white woman were convicted in the store firebombing in the coastal city despite their claims of innocence and their supporters' vehement argument that the defendants were victims of racially biased prosecutors.

Their sentences were reduced in 1978 by the state's governor then, Jim Hunt, and two years later their convictions were overturned in federal court for reasons of misconduct by the prosecutors.

But until Monday there were no pardons, and the sting of the guilty verdicts still followed the six surviving members of the group that was known nationwide as the Wilmington 10.

Perdue said that among the key evidence that led her to grant pardons of innocence were recently discovered notes from the prosecutor who picked the jury. The notes showed the prosecutor preferred white jurors who might be members of the Ku Klux Klan and one black juror was described as an "Uncle Tom type."

Perdue also pointed to the federal court's ruling that the prosecutor knew his star witness lied on the witness stand. That witness and other witnesses recanted a few years after the trial.

Timothy Taylor, a North Carolina historian and a visiting professor at Duke University, said he was given the notes two years ago and started to go through them recently when the NAACP called again for pardons for the Wilmington 10.

"It was pretty shocking stuff," he told CNN on Monday.

There were at least six potential jurors with "KKK Good!!" written next to them, he said. Next to a woman's name it said, "NO, she associates with Negroes."

On the back of the legal pad, the prosecutor, Jay Stroud, had apparently written the advantages and disadvantages of a mistrial, Taylor said. One of the advantages was a fresh start with a new jury.

Stroud told the Wilmington StarNews in October that the handwriting on the legal pad was his, but people were misinterpreting his notes.

"I could have had an all-white jury, but I didn't want to do that. Why would I leave a KKK on the jury?" Stroud said.

He told the newspaper that he wanted "blacks who could be fair" on the jury.

It was actually the second jury that ruled on the case. The first jury was dismissed after a mistrial was declared when Stroud said he was ill. That jury had two whites.

Taylor said the early 1970s were "really hard and really bad" and a "bubbling cauldron" of racially heated struggles in the state.

North Carolina had the largest number of Ku Klux Klan members in the country, he said, but there was also a strong African-American freedom movement.

"(The time) was seething with anger and resentment and fear and rage," he said.

And one of the Wilmington 10 was the Rev. Benjamin Chavis, whom Taylor described as a handsome, fearless civil rights leader who came from a brilliant family.

He was a threat to the "old guard" of North Carolina leaders.

Chavis was a target for police even before the firebombing occurred, Taylor said.

Chavis, who would become the head of the NAACP in 1993, was paroled in 1979.

Most of the others involved in the case struggled after they were set free.

"Things went badly for them," Taylor said. "Many of them had their health broken in prison."

In addition to Chavis, the surviving members of the Wilmington 10 are Reginald Epps, James McKoy, Wayne Moore, Marvin Patrick and Willie Earl Vereen. Those who have died are Jerry Jacobs, Ann Shepard, Connie Tindall and Joe Wright.

Edited by PurpleHaze - Dec 31 2012 at 6:50pm

My dad organized so many protests back then for this. Hopefully he heard this news too.

I'm glad you posted this Purp!

I was hoping the governor would do this in her last few days.

*Ultimate side eye to prosecutor Jay Stroud* Either own your obvious racism or sit yo lyin' ass down.

I was so sad to read about those Central Park Five's kids....they were so young, some were, what?, eighth,nineth graders, and they were accused of a despicable crime. Not only that but they were put in jail for a decade.

That case made me perpetually mad, and it is one reason I can't take some white women seriously when they Truro assert that the struggles of black women and white women are the same. Again, I seriously wish they would leave black folks outta their mouths and start accusing their own for a change. In a country where police can pull guns on black kids walking down the street, I have started caring less and less about crimes that affect whites.

As for the original OP, this is excellent news! A pardon, however, is not a wrongful conviction. They should be able to get some money out of this. Racism is alive and it literally destroys lives.