COOPER GRANTS SHARPE
PARDON OF INNOCENCE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Now that Gov. Cooper has granted Dontae Sharpe a pardon of innocence for a murder he was erroneously convicted of in July 1995, and served 26 years in prison for, the question remains - why did it take so long after Sharpe was released in August 2019?
That question lingers for Sharpe, and many other falsely convicted behind prison walls who await the courts to clear them for crimes they did not commit.
“My freedom ain’t still complete. Know that our system is corrupt and needs to be changed ,” Sharpe said during a Zoom press conference last Friday. “I’m thankful that I got mine and thankful that other guys are gonna get theirs. That’s what important now.”
To say it has been one long hell for Montoyae Dontae Sharpe is an understatement.
The Charlotte native was a 18-year-old teenager when he was arrested and charged in the 1994 fatal shooting of George Radcliffe in Greenville during what police at the time alleged was a drug deal gone bad. Sharpe denied all charges, adding that he wasn’t even at the scene, but that didn’t stop a Greenville jury from convicting him of first-degree murder despite no forensic evidence tying him to the crime.
Sharpe was sentenced to life in prison despite his denials. He also rejected all deals to shorten his sentence if he admitted to the crime, saying that he deserved a new trial where he could prove his innocence.
It wasn’t until 2019 when attorneys working on Sharpe’s behalf uncovered exculpatory evidence proving that Dontae Sharpe could not have committed the crime, including evidence that false testimony was given in the original trial.
A Greenville judge released Sharpe from prison after Greenville prosecutors said they could not retry him, based on the new evidence available. Sharpe’s devoted mother and family, who had asked the NC NAACP to help in the cause, were grateful for his release.
Sharpe’s long awaited victory was celebrated by leaders who long advocated for him even when he was still in prison.
“I am elated and overcome with joy,” exclaimed NC NAACP Pres. Rev. T. Anthony Spearman, who notably spent several Friday afternoons camped out in front of the Governor’s Mansion in downtown Raleigh protesting the delay on Sharpe being granted a pardon of innocence.
Rev. Dr. William Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach, and co-convener of the national Poor People’s Campaign, was president of the NC NAACP when the civil right organization first took up Sharpe’s cause over five years ago.
He also paid tribute to Sharpe and his family for their faith and long suffering, Rev. Spearman for picking up the advocacy mantle after he left the NC NAACP, and attorney Catlain Swain and the progressive advocacy legal group Forward Together of Durham for fighting for Sharpe’s release.
Rev. Barber also suggested that Gov. Cooper meet with Dontae Sharpe “man to man” one day to talk about the true injustices of North Carolina’s criminal justice system.
"Mr. Sharpe and others who have been wrongly convicted deserve to have that injustice fully and publicly acknowledged," Gov. Cooper said in a statement last Friday.
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GREG SMITH
EXCLUSIVE
APRIL 2022 TRIAL SET FOR
FAYETTEVILLE MED DIRECTOR
IN RACIAL PROFILING CASE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Gregory Smith is intent on making sure that the state of Missouri knows that it messed with the wrong black man when a state trooper there allegedly racially profiled the Fayetteville medical director during a visit there last August in the middle of the night.
That’s why instead of a November 9th traffic court hearing via video hookup, Smith is now preparing for an April 18, 2022 trial in Platte County, Missouri to prove that when he was stopped, it was because he was driving while black.
Not because he had broken any laws.
Smith was arrested for allegedly resisting an officer after he flew to Missouri three months ago for a medical conference. He claims that he was threatened with violence by a trooper, roughly handcuffed, unjustly charged $1,040 for a ticket for resisting the officer, and forced to walk six miles in the dark of night to find his rental car, which authorities left at a gas station that distance from the Highway Patrol station.
Smith was hoping that a black attorney he hired there would be ready to fight the false arrest for him, especially since Missouri is well-known in recent years for vigorously racially profiling African-American drivers. But the black attorney he initially hired show little interest in actually fighting the bogus charge against Smith, he says.
“Ridiculous that I have to constantly contact this guy for updates,” Smith said recently by text. “I’ll have to find a different attorney there to sue them.”
So intent was Gregory Smith to fight what he saw was a serious racial injustice, that he also submitted formal complaints with the Missouri Governor’s Office, Missouri Attorney General’s Office, and the ACLU of Missouri.
Plus, Smith says he also spoke with a retired Missouri NAACP attorney about securing someone there to sue the Highway Patrol.
“We ll have to bring this stuff into the biggest light, and put a stop to it, as best we can,” Smith said.
One of the reasons why Smith was so disenchanted with his initial attorney, as he said, is because he was being kept in the dark about what was going on with his case. On the morning of the November 9th hearing, Smith texted, “ I’m so in the dark. I sent the attorney another email this [morning] asking for an update. I sent one two weeks ago so I would know if I needed to book flight, or whether this was going to be a video hearing? He just sent a response earlier saying it’s a video hearing. He still hasn’t sent me the link for it…yet.”
“I am a bit disenchanted with this black attorney,” Smith continued. “Not sure he’s really on my team. It appears he just wanted the money just to go through the motions, just to be paid to address the ticket.”
“I’ll ride through it, and continue pursuing justice.”
And hour later, a frustrated Smith texted this reporter, “ I have patients on my schedule, and I still don’t know what time this court hearing is today. I requested info over a week ago, so as to coordinate my patient schedule.”
Smith continued that “…this is very poor on behalf of this BLACK male attorney I’ve retained. This is unacceptable….”
It would be later on that Smith would text again, indicating that he requested a trial in Platte County, Missouri for Monday, April 18, 2022.
With a full-on trial, as opposed to just a traffic court hearing, Smith believes, along with a different attorney, that not only will he be able to testify about his harrowing racial profiling experience on August 6th, but also call at least one witness - the 9-1-1 operator who was on duty at the time when he called on his cellphone, and left it on so that she could both hear and record the tense exchange between him and the threatening trooper.
Smith might also be able to call as a witness the overnight store clerk he spoke with when he had to ask directions for getting to his rental car, and told that it was six miles away, six miles he would have to walk.
And Smith should be able to enter into the record the emergency room report about injuries he sustained from the tight handcuffs that were placed on him at the time of his arrest.
He is hoping that both the 9-1-1 recording and a dash cam video of his trooper encounter still exists so that the judge and/or jury can hear and see the threatening exchange, and also hear that the trooper never read Smith his rights upon arrest.
“I’m making it a big deal, not just to dismiss the ticket,” Smith wrote.
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REV. DR. BENJAMIN CHAVIS
CHAVIS URGES HEALING
AT 1898 “UNITY” EVENT
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
[WILMINGTON] Saying that, “Healing starts in the mind. You’ve got to want to heal,” the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis, leader of the Wilmington Ten, joined others November 10th commemorating the 123rd anniversary of the 1898 Wilmington Race Massacre in urging those attending a special “Unity” service at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church to “heal forward.”
“I believe that Wilmington is a better city because we finally decided that we’re not only going to study the past, but learn from the past and we decided we’re going to live a different kind of future,” Chavis, also the president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), said.
“There’s something about this city…, there’s such great potential, such great promise,” Dr. Chavis continued. “But the forces of racism, the forces of oppression, the forces of economic exploitation would try to keep us divided so we think each other is the enemy.”
“If Wilmington, North Carolina can have a healing, I believe America can have a healing,” .
As a member of the Wilmington Ten, Rev. Chavis, along with nine other activists, was falsely accused in 1971 of firebombing a white-owned grocery store during riots in the city. The following year, they were all convicted and sentenced to prison. Their prison sentences would be shortened in 1977 by then Gov. Jim Hunt, but it would take over forty years in 2012 for them to receive pardons of innocence from then Gov. Beverly Perdue.
Dr. Chavis has led the NNPA - a national association of Black-owned newspapers - for the past several years.
Also speaking at the unity service were newly re-elected Mayor Bill Saffo, NC NAACP President-elect Deborah Dicks-Maxwell, also currently the president of the New Hanover County Chapter of the NAACP, and Ms. Bertha Todd, a 92-year-old local historian and retired educator who was among the the first during the 100th anniversary of the Wilmington Race Massacre to lead a commemoration, and also work to create the 1898 Memorial Park in 2008.
The unity service was the culmination of ten days of important events commemorating the 123 anniversary of the Wilmington 1898 Race Massacre, where white supremacists violently took over the city government, and relentlessly killed blacks, and forced other to flee for their lives, in order to take power. The bloody, racist event ushered in the infamous Jim Crow era throughout the South.
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 11-18-21
MEMBERS OF THE PROUD AT NH SCHOOL BOARD MEETING
[WILMINGTON] Why were five members of the white supremacist group The Proud Boys present at the Nov. 10th NH county School Board meeting? They never said anything, but with handkerchiefs across their faces, they stood and applauded every time a speaker addressed the board opposing the mask mandate. Official say the members have the right to attend school board meetings, as long as they aren’t violent.
MCCRAE DOWLESS REJECTS PLEA DEAL 2018 ELECTION SCANDAL
[BLADEN COUNTY] The man who authorities say was at the heart of the 2018 absentee ballot scandal in Bladen County has rejected a plea deal in the case. McCrae Dowless has until the end of November to one year in prison and five years probation if he pleads guilty to all charges stemming from his alleged election ballot fraud scheme that forced the 2018 congressional elections be redone. If Dowless,65, rejects the deal, he’ll go one trial next year.
CAFETERIA WORKERS AT 30 WAKE SCHOOLS DEMAND MORE PAY
[RALEIGH] First the Wake Public School System bus drivers refused to work last week until they got a pay hike. This week, cafeteria workers in 30 Wake County schools warned parents to pack their children lunches because there would be no lunch service for them until they saw higher pay. The Wake School Board had already approved a $1,250 bonus for full-time employees, and a smaller one for part-timers.
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