HOW DIVERSE WILL
GOV. STEIN’S NEW
ADMINISTRATION BE?
By Cash Michaels
An analysis
Almost a year ago, when North Carolina’s Black Press asked then NC gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein, “ Will you commit today to lead an administration of qualified professionals that closely reflects the diversity of North Carolina?,” the then Democratic state attorney general replied, “I will. I firmly believe that we make the best decisions when all perspectives are around the table. I’ve always prioritized hiring people who come from a variety of different backgrounds.”
The Democrat added, “My whole career has been about trying to expand opportunity for all people in North Carolina.”
Now that Gov. Stein has officially taken office, it may take a few weeks to determine if and how he intends to hold to that promise. At press time, Stein was still putting his administration together, but his progress, or lack of it, will be noted, not as some artificial quota system to meet a political promise, but as a measurement of Gov. Josh Stein’s stated commitment to a policy goal.
On Monday, ten members of Stein’s thirteen-member cabinet were sworn-in, and among those ten, three were African-American:
Eddie Buffaloe - secretary of the Dept. of Public Safety
McKinley Wooten, Jr. - secretary of Dept. of Revenue
Jocelyn Mitnaul Malette - secretary of Dept. of Military and Veteran
Affairs
Each of the thirteen cabinet secretaries will be responsible for hiring a diverse staff to flesh out the Stein Administration.
One thing is certain though - if Gov. Stein indeed intends to have a diverse administration that “closely reflects the diversity of North Carolina,” it will definitely be against the wishes of the Republican-led NC General Assembly, which has so far acted to take appointment power away from the Governor’s Office, and has stood strong against any diversity, equality and inclusion policies in state government.
When asked by NC’s Black Press, “In what ways have you and the African-American community worked together successfully, and how can you do so as governor,” then candidate Stein replied, “As governor I will continue my focus of trying to make sure that every person in this state has every opportunity to achieve whatever it is that they want in their dreams for their futures.”
Stein’s answer was certainly broad, but his intentions, given his first answer is clear - diversity should be expected to be seen in the new Stein Administration when it comes to qualified hiring and appointments, as well as its policy implementation.
Stein, a white Jewish Democrat, won office by defeating a Black conservative Republican, despite a tide of Republican victories across the country, signaling that like his predecessor Roy Cooper, Stein depended on strong support from North Carolina’s Black Democratic voting base. That normally is expected to translate into making sure that African-Americans are not forgotten when it comes to hiring, appointments, doing business with or policy implementation as his young administration proceeds.
As former Gov. Cooper has proven, the African-American community has a deep talent pool across the state from which to choose from when it comes to judicial and administrative appointments, so if the Stein Administration is not appropriately staffed up at least six months from now, observers may note it, thus forcing Gov. Stein to address an issue of his own making.
The Black Press can be counted on to continuously monitor the Stein Administration’s progress on the issue of diversity, equity and inclusion, or the significant lack thereof.
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HASSON JAMAAL BACOTE
LAST ACT AS GOVERNOR,
COOPER COMMUTES BACOTE’S
DEATH SENTENCE TO LIFE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
In one of his final major acts as governor, Gov. Roy Cooper commuted the death sentences of 15 prison inmates to life without the possibility of parole. Advocacy groups had pressured Cooper to commute the sentences of all 136 inmates on death row before he left office.
One of those death row inmates facing capital punishment was 38-year-old Hasson Jamaal Bacote, who was convicted in Johnson County in 2009 of first degree murder.
Bacote’s case is noteworthy because he had challenged his murder conviction under the 2009 Racial Justice Act (RJA), a since repealed law by the Republican-led NC General Assembly which allowed those convicted of capital offenses to have their death sentences commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole if they can prove that race played a role in their sentencing.
Bacote’s case was argued before a Johnston County Superior court judge last year as one of those that qualified under the RJA, but the state Attorney General’s Office under now Governor Josh Stein argued against commuting his sentence.
During the two-week Johnston Superior Court hearing on Bacote’s case, his attorneys argued that during his original trial, local prosecutors were “nearly two times more likely to exclude people of color from jury service than to exclude whites." And that’s what happened to Bacote. Prosecutors chose “…to strike prospective Black jurors from the jury pool at more than three times the rate of prospective white jurors.”
Add that to the fact that Johnston County was well-known as the "the home of the Ku Klu Klan,” and Blacks in capital cases were 1.5 times more likely to face the death penalty, it was clear that Bacote’s sentencing was most likely influenced by racial bias on the part of prosecutors.
In referencing all of the 15 death row cases he commuted, including Bacote’s, Gov. Copper said in a statement, “These reviews are among the most difficult decisions a Governor can make and the death penalty is the most severe sentence that the state can impose,” Cooper said in a statement, “After thorough review, reflection, and prayer, I concluded that the death sentence imposed on these 15 people should be commuted, while ensuring they will spend the rest of their lives in prison.”
Indeed, Cooper added that the "potential influence of race, such as the race of the defendant and victim, composition of the jury pool and the final jury” weighed as factors in his final decision-making.
Because of a court-ordered moratorium of the death penalty in North Carolina, no death row prisoner has been executed in the state since 2006.
The GOP-controlled legislature repealed the RJA in 2013. But in 2020, the then Democrat-controlled state Supreme Court ruled the death row inmates who were already having their cases under consideration under the RJA when the Republicans repealed the law were entitled to full hearings even though the law no longer existed. Bacote’s case was one of them.
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