N.C. governor pardons civil rights activists

[Mike Evans]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/31/justic...html?c=us&page

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.


This is great news.

[flyboy56]

Tainted jury? Doesn't the Defense have a say in who is picked for the jury? Maybe they should be penalized for failing to serve the defendants?

[ms maggie]

We tend to forget how recently these kinds of travesties occurred right here in the land of the free and home of the brave. Too bad this kind of prosecutorial misconduct took so ling to surface. This clown should have rotted in jail.

[Mike Evans]

From the article:
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."

It's always one uncle Tom in the picture

[kudzu]

It's always one uncle Tom in the picture

So says every conspiracy theorist.

[BlandFood]

From the article:
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."

It's always one uncle Tom in the picture

Why do less evolved sub humans hate men named Tom?

[genghiskhanraven]

We tend to forget how recently these kinds of travesties occurred right here in the land of the free and home of the brave. Too bad this kind of prosecutorial misconduct took so ling to surface. This clown should have rotted in jail.

I don't know of anyone who would describe 40 years ago as recent.
Did they even invent personal computers 40 years ago?

[Pauliseum]

Why do less evolved sub humans hate men named Tom?

"...less evolved sub humans.."?
Really??

[kandace]

I don't know of anyone who would describe 40 years ago as recent.
Did they even invent personal computers 40 years ago?

The PC is 40 years old.

[genghiskhanraven]

The PC is 40 years old.

That's pretty sweet, looks like a "recent" computer, do they still sell it at best buy?

[dialtone]

I don't know of anyone who would describe 40 years ago as recent.
Did they even invent personal computers 40 years ago?

When you're speaking historically and within lifespan it seems recent.

[kandace]

That's pretty sweet, looks like a "recent" computer, do they still sell it at best buy?

Ha ha, very funny. It's a collector's item, and you definitely won't see it at Best Buy. Xerox did not commericlaize its PC, but it did provide valuable financial andd technical support for Apple's PC.

[genghiskhanraven]

When you're speaking historically and within lifespan it seems recent.

Ok than
I will try not to laugh when my crazy uncle Walt tells me the last time he got laid was "recently" in 1973

[RavnFreek]

I don't know of anyone who would describe 40 years ago as recent.
Did they even invent personal computers 40 years ago?

It depends on what history you are referring too. If you are talking about technology, then no 40 years is not recent. If you are talking about the history of the universe, 40 years is very recent. It’s all relative.

[ms maggie]

I don't know of anyone who would describe 40 years ago as recent.
Did they even invent personal computers 40 years ago?

Well that's the problem isn't it? Lack of context, fast food, sound bite approach to history.

No worries, someone might develop an app so learning about our country's complex and troubling history of judicial compliance with racism will be more fun for everyone!!

[BiggSeth]

From the article:
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."

It's always one uncle Tom in the picture

so I guess that black juror was a Conservative black person......Like Tim Scott, Herman Cain or Alan West??

Seeing as how racebait, inc. has labeled these great Americans and many others like them in the same manner.....

Oh how quickly we forget!

[Gopher]

Don't care much for Ms. Perdue. She's a progressive goof. However, she did the right thing. It was a bad conviction. No evidence, perjured testimony, prosecutorial chicanery, etc. That's not what our system is supposed to be about. Won't give them their lives spent in prison back but the pardons should make it easier for the surviving defendants to apply for compensation from the State for the time they spent incarcerated. The surviving family members should be entitled to compensation as well. I'd also like to see prosecutors going to jail for this type of behavior.

[ms maggie]

so I guess that black juror was a Conservative black person......Like Tim Scott, Herman Cain or Alan West??

Seeing as how racebait, inc. has labeled these great Americans and many others like them in the same manner.....

Oh how quickly we forget!

So you disagree w this scurrilous prosecutor? Good. Why he thought someone was an Uncle Tom is anybody's guess of course. But you are correct that he is absolutely a prime example of racebaiting.

[sigmalady]

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.

Good call by the governor.