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VOLUME 91 - NUMBER 14
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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 2012
Baptist leader says NC
crucial in marriage debate
By Tom Breen
WAKE FOREST (AP) -
North Carolina, the last state in
the South without a constitution
al amendment banning same-sex
marriage, can play a key role in
the national debate over the top
ic, a prominent Southern Baptist
leader told an audience in Wake
Forest on March 28.
‘11
Dr. Lavonia Allison
Retirement Celebration for
Dr. E. Lavonia Allison
The Scholarship and Retirement Committee of the Durham
Committee on the Affairs of Black People will hold a retirement
celebration honoring Dr. Lavonia I. Allison, “A Phenomenal Woman
for All Times” on Saturday, April 14. The event will be held at the
Radisson Hotel Research Triangle Park at 6 p.m. The honoree has
worked unselfishly for Durham, the State of North Carolina, and the
nation improving the well-being of our citizens for over forty years.
For fourteen years she served as the Chairperson of the Durham
Committee on the Affairs of Black People. During these years she
made significant inroads that broadened the scope of the Committee
through its nine standing committees to increase its effectiveness in
the areas of Health, Education, Economics, Housing and Political
Action.
Tributes will be provided on behalf of the Allison family, the State
of North Carolina, City of Durham, North Carolina Mutual Life
Insurance Company, Representative Larry Hall, U.S. Congressman
G.K. Butterfield, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and others.
The cost to attend the event is $50 and tables are available for
$500. A portion of the proceeds for attendance will be donated to the
Scholarship Fund. Donations to the fund can also be made in lieu of
attendance. All funds must be mailed prior to the event date as no
funds will be accepted at the door.
Contact Mignon Schooler at 919-493-3885 for questions about
attendance. Mail your contribution to:
Mignon Schooler
P.O. Box 52605
Durham, NC 27717
Faison predicting success
with NC gov’s run
By Gary D. Robertson
GREENVILLE (AP) - Bill Faison played the maverick’s role last
fall by scrutinizing what he called fellow Democratic Gov. Beverly
Perdue’s inactivity about high unemployment and spending cuts by
the Republican-led Legislature and by promoting his own jobs plan.
The Orange County state House member traveled like a statewide
candidate, speaking to Democratic groups and their allies. While the
medical malpractice attorney said he wouldn’t run for governor un
less Perdue stepped aside, he also predicted publicly she would quit
the race.
Faison’s forecast came true Jan. 26 when Perdue announced she
wouldn’t seek re-election. He got in the race two days later. He said
people are hyping his ability to push Perdue out.
“No one would be able to force someone out of a race like a sit
ting governor,” Faison said in an interview, adding that going around
the state to talk about putting people back to work “is something that
ought to be above reproach.”
The 65-year-old Faison is now keeping to the same format he used
os a quasi-candidate, hoping personal interaction with voters will
leap electoral rewards. He was willing to spend two hours in Green-
wile at the end of a long day of campaigning to meet a combined 25
Democrats.
As one of six hopefuls for the Democratic nomination, Faison now
has new predictions: That his performance in April televised debates
"ill separate him from his leading rivals, Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton and
former U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge; and that the electorate will gravitate
toward him in the May 8 primary and in November against the pre
sumptive Republican nominee.
“With your help, I’ll go beat Pat McCrory this fall,” Faison told
people at the organizational meeting of the Pitt County Young
Democrats at a downtown Greenville bistro. “I don’t think it’ll be a
huge beating, but I’ll beat him.”
Faison doesn’t lack confidence or personal wealth. His campaign
more than $500,000 as of Dec. 31, almost all of it in the form
of his personal loans. He’s already run a commercial on television,
•fore personal funds likely are needed if he wants to make a TV ad
splash in the primary campaign’s final weeks.
Faison is keeping the jobs plan he’s promoted since September the
®chor of his gubernatorial campaign.
(Continued On Page 15)
Richard Land, president of
the convention’s Ethics and Re
ligious Liberty Commission, is
often the point man on policy
issues for the nation’s largest
Protestant denomination, and
his presence in North Carolina
signals how closely the May 8
referendum vote here is being
watched around the country.
“Make no mistake, those (Su
preme Court) justices are watch
ing what the people of North
Carolina say about this issue,”
Land told an audience at the
Southeastern Baptist Theologi
cal Seminary.
Land said he believes the U.S.
Supreme Court would be hesi
tant to allow couples of the same
gender to marry if other states
join the 29 already with amend
ments defining marriage as be
tween a man and a woman. That
could change if states like North
Carolina reject such amend
ments, he said.
“If we lose, they will exercise
their judicial imperialism,” he
said. “That’s what’s at stake.”
While North Carolina law
already prohibits same-sex mar
riage, supporters of the amend
ment contend the statute is still
vulnerable to court challenges.
Amendment backers are hoping
churches will provide the back
bone of their support for the vote,
and the event in Wake Forest in
cluded pastors and theologians
who underscored that point.
DVDs made by the Family
Research council were distrib
uted in the pews of Binkley Cha
pel, where the event was held,
containing sermons, videos and
church bulletin inserts for pas
tors looking to energize their
flocks on the issue.
“North Carolina is not really
the first state to move to protect
marriage,” said Kenyn Cureton,
vice president for church minis
tries at the research council. “In
fact, North Carolina is the only
Southern state not to, so don’t let
us down, guys.”
While the state’s largest
Christian denominations, includ
ing the state Southern Baptist
convention, support the amend
ment, North Carolina’s Chris
tians are not unanimous on the
issue. Some clergy members
from churches outside those
denominations argue that Chris
tians have a duty to oppose the
amendment as discriminatory.
“The biblical story is about
God’s covenant with God’s
people and how that covenant
is shaped in ways that are just
and loving and inclusive and that
embody grace and forgiveness,”
said the Rev. Nancy Petty, pas
tor of Pullen Memorial Baptist
Church in Raleigh. “That’s how
I understand and read the Bible.”
Recently, about 30 members
of a group called Clergy for
Equality preached against the
marriage amendment. The Rev.
Chris Ayers, pastor of Wedge
wood Baptist Church in Char
lotte, said Christians should
interpret the Bible through the
example of Jesus, which Ayers
said means recognizing the love
same-sex partners have for each
other.
“In the eyes of God, gay cou
ples are married, and they’re re
fusing to seem as if they’re not
married in the eyes of this state
or any other state,” he said.
(Continued On Page 15)
One of the youngest rally participants at NCCU holds a sign demanding justice
for Trayvon Martin. (NCCU Photo by Lawson)
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NCCU rally participants sit and lay on the ground as a symbolic gesture of the
killing of Trayvon Martin.( NCCU Photo by Lawson)
NC death penalty
study author meets
House members
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - A House committee examining whether to make changes to the Racial Justice Ac
heard March 27 from the co-author of a study that found race was a significant factor as prosecutors madi
juror decisions in death penalty cases. The report was met by skepticism and support from panel members
Michigan State University law professor Barbara O’Brien addressed the committee as lawmakers de
cide what, if anything, to do about a 2009 law designed to reduce death sentences to life imprisonmen
when racial bias is evident.
O’Brien told the committee her review of more than 7,400 potential capital jurors couldn’t locati
anything other than race to explain why potential black jurors were rejected more than twice as often b;
prosecutors compared to whites.
The statistical analysis of qualified jurors for the cases of all 173 death row prisoners as of July 2011
found prosecutors statewide were on average 2.26 times more likely to dismiss a potential black juro
compared to any other qualified member of the jury pool. The pool doesn’t include people who wouldn’
support a death sentence under any circumstance.
The black-white strike ratio of at least 2-to-l held even when O’Brien’S analysis controlled, for othe
variables that could have had an effect on a prosecutor’s decision-making, such as information scrubbet
from juror questionnaires and court transcripts for about 25 percent of the qualified jurors. The variables
for example, included whether the prospective juror knew a witness or the defendant; stood accused of:
crime; or expressed reservations about the death penalty.
"Racial disparities that we observed in the raw strike a pattern ... they’re not explained by any race
neutral characteristics that we could find and that ever have been suggested to us,” O’Brien said, adding
that there were no factors in the court records or in affidavits by prosecutors "that could explain the dif
ferent ways these black potential jurors were being treated.”
Republican leaders in the House formed the committee when they couldn’t gather enough votes u
January to override Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue’s veto of a bill that would have effectively repealer
the 2009 law, which was passed when Democrats were in control. The committee is expected to makr
recommendations to the full General Assembly when it reconvenes in May.
O’Brien testified earlier this year about the study at the first hearing for a death-row prisoner using th.
Racial Justice Act. A judge has yet to rule in the case of Marcus Robinson of Cumberland County, whose
lawyers argue race was a factor in the decisions of prosecutors to reject potential jurors who were black
The judge would sentence Robinson to life in prison if he finds race was a significant factor in Robinson’:
sentence.
The study scrutinized decision-making by prosecutors in striking potential jurors from the pool, no
the attorneys for the defendant. O’Brien told Rep. Sarah Stevens, R-Surry, the percentage of black juror:
actually empaneled for the death penalty cases reviewed was on par with the 16 percent in the number o
qualified jurors.
Jonathan Perry, an assistant district attorney in Union County who cross-examined O’Brien in th
Cumberland County hearing, also pointed out the study didn’t look at cases where death-row inmates al
ready have been executed or the capital defendant was acquitted or received a lesser sentence. That mean:
the study doesn’t have a random sample, which is needed to make strong inferences from the data, he said
(Continued On Page 3)