NC’S REDISTRICTING PROCESS
BEGINS WITH RACIAL RULES
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Now that results from the 2020 U.S. Census are in, redistricting committees in the NC General Assembly have once again begun the process of redrawing the district population lines for the next decade to determine voting strength throughout North Carolina for local, legislative and congressional elections.
Dramatic changes are already in the offing, as North Carolina’s 13 congressional districts will be redrawn to make room for a 14th, especially since eleven of the current 13 are overpopulated beyond the required 746, 711.
One of the most overpopulated voting districts is the 12th in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area, and is represented by Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-NC) at 899, 779, one of only two black congresspeople from North Carolina.
Ironically, the population count in the other black congressional district, the 1st, is short by 59,355. That district is represented by G. K. Butterfield.
North Carolina’s population in the past ten years has grown 9.5%, especially in the six county areas surrounding Raleigh and Charlotte respectively.
North Carolina currently has eight Republican congresspeople, and five Democrats.
The use of past election results and party registration is disallowed, according to the new rules governing the process, as is any information about the racial composition of a proposed voting district.
That’s a problem towards not constituting the districts fairly, say black lawmakers like state Sen. Dan Blue (D-Wake) and state Sen. Ben Clark of Fayetteville. Concerned about complying with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and its mandate to not dilute black voting rights, Democrats proposed guidelines for the use of black population data per the districts, but were essentially shot down by the GOP majority.
Since 2011, Republicans have been in the control of both Houses of the legislature, and thus, have been in control of the redistricting process. As a result, the fruit of their efforts - namely racially and partisan gerrymandering voting district maps - have been challenged in state and federal courts, with the majority of rulings catching the GOP trying to gain unconstitutional advantage more times than not by rigging the racial voting numbers.
Democrats maintain that the courts have ruled out the use of race as the primary factor in redrawing voting districts, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a factor.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in the past that while racial gerrymandering - or “stacking and packing” blacks into districts - but unconstitutional, partisan gerrymandering is not. Democrats, not trusting their Republican colleagues, are challenging their GOP colleagues on every aspect of developing the process now, in order to get the best outcome of what normally turns out to be a one-sided affair where the ruling party (Republicans) use redistricting to gain even more political advantage for the next ten years, and ultimately, retain power.
Republicans, however, now vow to change that behavior.
“North Carolina has been the epicenter of redistricting lawsuits for decades,” said Sen. Warren Daniel, R-Burke, co-chair of the Senate Redistricting Committee, in a statement. “It’s time to put the last 30 years of litigation behind us and begin a new era of nonpartisan map drawing.”
Even though Republicans rejected Democratic recommendations about the rules for drawing the maps, they insisted that the process will be “transparent,” as maps will be drawn out in the open during committee sessions with a video camera streaming the process for the state snd world to see.
The deep concern among Democrats is that Republicans across the nation are well-positioned with redistricting to takeover the majority in the U.S. House during the 2022 midterm elections.
North Carolina is considered one of the key states to watch in that GOP effort.
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NCNAACP LEADER BELIEVES
CONVICTED JORDAN KILLER
MAY BE INNOCENT
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The president of the NC NAACP believes that the convicted killer of James Jordan, father of NBA basketball legend and Wilmington native Michael Jordan, may, in fact, be innocent, and is supporting a filed petition for an evidentiary review by the NC Court of Appeals in order to secure a new trial.
Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman, president of the civil rights group, says he’s convinced that Daniel Green - convicted in 1996 for the July 1993 murder of the elder Jordan - did not get a fair trial.
Green, who has been in prison for the past 28 years serving life plus ten years, confessed to helping dispose of the body of James Jordan in a South Carolina river in July 1993, but has always denied fatally shooting Jordan, even though police said they found the alleged murder weapon, and the NBA championship ring that Michael Jordan gave to his father at the home where then 18-year-old Green lived in Lumberton.
A subsequent look at the evidence in the Green case has raised serious questions about his conviction, like the lack of blood evidence in the car that Jordan was supposedly shot in, or linkage between the .38 caliber gun found, and the bullet that killed Jordan.
Both pieces of evidence were inconclusive. Green was primarily convicted by the testimony of his childhood friend, codefendant Larry Demery.
Demery, who was also convicted for the Jordan murder, reportedly now says that Green was not the one who pulled the trigger.
Green and his attorney Chris Mumma, executive director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, filed his latest appeal with the court on July 30th.
“I’m hopeful about the appeal,” Green told WRAL-TV, which produced a documentary titled Moment of Truth questioning the original 1993 investigation that charged Green, and the subsequent trial that convicted and sentenced him.
The Raleigh television station also produced an accompanying podcast titled Follow the Truth about the case.
It was upon viewing the documentary, and then speaking to people he knew about the Green case, that NC NAACP Pres. Spearman decided to publicly get behind the effort to help Daniel Green petition for an evidentiary appellate hearing, in hopes of securing a new trial.
“The NC NAACP has closely monitored developments in Mr. Green’s case, and supports his efforts to obtain an evidentiary hearing to review the issues raised in his petition,” Rev. Dr. Spearman said. “These claims, and the lower courts’ failure to to review them have seriously undermined public confidence in the investigation that identified Mr. Green as the person who shot Mr. Jordan.”
Spearman added, “…the circumstances surrounding [Green’s}conviction are concerning - eve bizarre - and warrant a closer look. The NC NAACP supports Daniel Green’s efforts to seek appellate review of this most recent order denying him an evidentiary hearing.”
STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 09-19-21 (FOR WILMINGTON JOURNAL)
REV. BARBER APPEALS FOUR-YEAR OLD CONVICTION
[RALEIGH] Citing that his four-year-old trespassing conviction violated his First Amendment rights, Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the national Poor People’s Campaign and former president of the NC NAACP, went before the NC Court of Appeals last week, along with his attorney, defending his right to protest when he led a 2017 demonstration on the NC General Assembly. Rev. Barber was indicted in May 2018.
NEW HANOVER COUNTY SCHOOLS CONSIDERING FINGERPRINTING SYSTEM
[WILMINGTON] Reportedly, North Carolina is one of only seven states in the nation that doesn’t fingerprint school staff in order to determine which may have a history of sexually abusing minors. That may change now in NHC Public Schools as it is reportedly working with the NHC Sheriff’s Dept. to implement the process. NHC Public Schools already doe background checks on staff and teachers.
NC HAS TEACHER SHORTAGE IN CORE AREAS
[GREENSBORO] Even though North Carolina’s licensor’s ed teachers’ shortage remarkably held stable during the year-long pandemic, the state still has a shortfall of educators, primarily because of low pay and lack respect, they say. The shortage is particularly bad in the state’s rural areas, where school systems aren’t able to afford the signing bonuses and supplements the larger urban systems can.
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