G. K. BUTTERFIELD
DID GOP MAPMAKERS TRY
TO ELIMINATE STRENGTH
OF BLACK VOTERS?
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
When First District Congressman G. K. Butterfield announced his unexpected retirement from Congress last week, he blamed it, in part, on a “racially gerrymandered” voting map that will “disadvantage African-American communities all across the first congressional district.”
In short, instead of redrawing Butterfield’s district according to the mandates of the 1965 Voting Rights Act to ensure that black voters in so-called minority-majority districts are able to elect representatives who look like them, Republican lawmakers boasted how they did not use race as a factor at all in redrawing the voting districts, thus, in Rep. Butterfield’s case, making his district more Republican than Democrat, and ultimately, more white than black.
“I am disappointed, terribly disappointed with the Republican majority legislature for again gerrymandering our state's congressional districts and putting their party politics over the best interests of North Carolinians,” Butterfield, one of two African-American North Carolina congresspeople, continued.
If Democrats indeed can prove that Rep. Butterfield’s First District was redrawn more in favor of yielding a Republican, that would violate North Carolina law against partisan redistricting.
If racial gerrymandering can be proven, that would also violate federal law.
North Carolina’s other black Democrat in Congress, Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC-12) called the new congressional map “illegal.”
A quick analysis of the voting maps Republicans recently produced show that both congressionally and in the state legislature, several black Democratic lawmakers will be eliminated like Butterfield if the maps are allowed to stand.
According to WRAL-TV, for example, “of the 12 black senators in the state Senate, all of whom are Democrats, four are likely or certain to lose their seats in the 2022 elections” to a Republican, because of the new maps.
“In the state House…,” the WRAL-TV report continued, “… five of the 24 black members are at risk or certain to lose their seats next year.”
But Republicans, who are once again tasked with redistricting North Carolina’s 14 Congressional seats, 120 legislative and 50 state Senate districts for the next ten years, claim that they’re doing nothing wrong, and in fact, are following the dictates of the U.S. Supreme Court, which allows for partisan redistricting, and warned the GOP previously about misusing race to “stack and pack” black voters in several minority-majority districts purely to make it easier to defeat white Democrats.
The High Court never said race cannot be a factor in redistricting, just not the major, driving factor in redrawing voting lines.
So it’s no surprise that Democratic analysts see the new Republican maps as lessening Democratic voting strengthen throughout the state.
And in lessening Democratic voting strength, they also dilute black voting strength and representation, since the majority of African-American voters are Democrats.
Two lawsuits have already been filed against the Republican voting maps.
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FSU MADE A NC PROMISE
SCHOOL IN NEW $25-B BUDGET
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
For all of the headlines the new $25.9 billion state budget is making, perhaps the most unnoticed is it’s impact on one of the UNC System HBCU’s for the future.
In the new budget - recently passed by the Republican-led NC General Assembly, and signed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper - is the designation of Fayetteville State University as a NC Promise school. The designation now reduces tuition at FSU to just $500.00 per semester.
Previous NC Promise schools include Elizabeth City State University (ECSU), UNC-Pembroke (UNCP) and Western Carolina University (WCU).
According to it’s website, the NC Promise Tuition Plan - created by state lawmakers in 2016 - has , “…increased educational access, reduced student debt, and grown the state’s economy.”
Even though the plan now involves two of the UNC System’s historically Back Colleges and Universities (Elizabeth City State University And Fayetteville State University), it reaches out to native -American, Latino American and low-income White students as well.
In March, 2019, the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal published an article titled, “ NC Promise’s Costs and Benefits: An Early Analysis,” Beyond tuition savings, other benefits have come about from NC Promise. UNCP’s enrollment increased by nearly 900 new students, and it also improved standardized testing scores and freshman retention went up by five percent. Whether this increase in student academic quality can be sustained or repeated at other schools remains to be seen, but it should be noted by policymakers in evaluating NC Promise’s success.”
The article also noted that questions remained regarding NC Promise’s on-time graduation rate, which averages in-system at six-years for students who start at NC Promise schools.
“ECSU had an abysmal graduation rate of 43.4 percent in 2017, in addition to poor performance in a variety of other academic and student financial measures. UNCP, too, struggled with a 48.5 percent graduation rate. WCU fared better with a 64.4 percent graduation rate, still below the system average of 68.8 percent.”
The article surmised, “Pushing students to underwhelming regional campuses is a risky move if the state’s goal is to educate them for post-graduate success.”
In an unrelated aspect of the new budget, it provides $650,000 towards the construction of the North Carolina Freedom Park, the African-American sculpture park being planned for between the state Legislative building and Governor’s Mansion in Raleigh.
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SHOULD INNOCENT PRISONERS
BE GIVEN AUTOMATIC COMPENSATION?
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
When former North Carolina inmate Dontae Sharpe was finally granted a gubernatorial pardon of innocence two weeks ago, the volume was immediately turned up on the argument about why did he have to wait over two years to receive the legal opportunity to petition the state for compensation? After all, Sharpe had already spent 26 years for a crime he didn’t commit.
If prosecutors and a judge legally determined back in August 2019 that there was no evidence pertaining to Sharpe’s previous conviction and life sentence for first-degree murder - a crime that later evidence shows he did not commit - why was it mandatory for Gov. Roy Cooper, the Office of Executive Clemency and Office of General Council, to reexamine the entire case, including the exculpatory evidence, and take over two years to do it?
The short answer is…because that’s the law in North Carolina.
Under North Carolina law, only the governor has the constitutional power to grant one of three types of pardons - pardon of forgiveness meaning the convicted offender will still have a criminal record after meeting certain conditions; unconditional pardon, traditionally meaning that the individual has retained the right to own a firearm; and a pardon of innocence, which erases the criminal record of the crime the individual was falsely convicted of.
A pardon of innocence, granted after charges are subsequently dismissed after a conviction, is required before a falsely convicted individual is eligible for compensation from the state for a wrongful incarceration. They are responsible for making sure the court expunges their criminal record.
A person who receives a pardon of innocence is entitled to compensation from the State up $50,000 a year for every year of false incarceration, topping off at $750,000. There is a time limit after an innocent person is released from prison for him/her to apply for and close, their compensation.
In Dontae Sharpe’s case, the state was petitioned for a pardon of innocence after his release in August 2019. Ordinarily after an application is made, the Office of Executive Clemency and Office of the General Counsel investigate the case, and the governor hears from all involved before making a decision. How long that should take is based on the case.
Activists want the compensation to be available upon dismissal of the charges, if anything to add certainty to when compensation would be available.
This is an issue Sharpe has vowed to work toward in order to improve the process for other innocent prisoners.
One man who knows that law better than most is North Carolina Central University School of Law Professor Irving Joyner.
Joyner was a defense attorney for the Wilmington Ten, a group of activists who were falsely convicted in 1972 of firebombing a white-owned grocery store, and sent to prison. It took over forty years before evidence emerged that their prosecutions were phony, meaning that serving members had to live with a life-destroying felony on their records for over forty years.
In 2012, Joyner was one of two attorneys who worked to get the Wilmington Ten pardons of innocence, and the surviving members due compensation. In light of the Dante Sharpe episode, Joyner says the system does need to be changed.
“I would agree that where a person has been judicially determined to have been wrongfully convicted that the legal process should allow for immediate compensation for the harm that the individual was forced to endure,” Atty.Joyner said in a statement. “This is different than when the validity of a conviction is left to the Governor to decide.”
“It does not make sense to force a wrongfully convicted person to have to, once again, prove to the Governor that they were wrongfully convicted in order to be compensated for the time that they spent in confinement after there has already been a determination by a Judge that a wrongful conviction occurred.”
Joyner continued, “ Another and bigger issue, however, is capping compensation at a specific amount or number of years irrespective of how long the person was wrongfully incarcerated. If $50,000 per year is the designated amount, the wrongfully convicted person should be compensated for each year of their incarceration. The notion is how do we make the person “whole” and fully compensated for all of the harm that they were forced to endure.”
“In too many instances, North Carolina law does not allow for full compensation when the State is responsible for the harm that a person endured,” Atty. Joyner said, adding, “The Dontae Sharpe experience is just one example of that when he spent 26 years in prison, but compensation is capped at $750,000. There is another 11 years of his wrongful confinement or harm for which he is not being compensated. That result is wrong and should be addressed by the General Assembly.”
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 11-25-21
AUTHORITIES PROBE MOORE COUNTY SCHOOLS PHONE THREAT OVER MASK MANDATE
[CARTHAGE] Moore County authorities are investigating a telephone threat left on the voice mail of the Moore County public school system in September after the school board there passed a COVID-19 mask mandate for students. The expletive-filled message said, in part, “…we are going to come for you.” In July, one person was topped bringing a knife and a loaded gun to a school board meeting.
“VERY STRONG” NC OCTOBER JOBS REPORT
[RALEIGH] A renowned NC State economist says October’s seasonally -adjusted unemployment for North Carolina fell to a “very strong” 4.1 percent. Dr. Michael Walden says the latest jobless data shows that North Carolina’s unemployment rate has fallen to it’s lowest level since March 2020. Walden adds that more people are joining the workforce, and hourly wages rose, all good signs that North Carolina is coming out of the pandemic.
BUTTERFIELD SAYS WASHINGTON HAS LOST “RESPECTFUL” TONE
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] Washington, D.C. is no longer a place where Democrats and Republicans work together in respectful harmony, opines outgoing NC Congressman G. K. Butterfield. Instead, the partisan battles in Capitol Hill today are bitter and personal, which saddens Butterfield, who announce his retirement last week after serving in Congress since 2004. "The days of civility have left us, and we now find ourselves in very toxic, divisive debate," he told WRAL-TV. "We cannot have toxic and divisive debate and survive the institution. The institution depends on civility, and we don't have civility today in Washington."
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