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^71 C29t 1 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012 VOLUME 91 - NUMBER 27 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 30 NC hearing held on reworked Racial Justice Act WALLTOWN REUNION - The Walltown Community held its annual Reunion July 6-8. It began Saturday with a parade and finished with entertainment and cookout at the Recreation center on Club Blvd. See photos on page 2. New optimism about stemming spread of AIDS virus By Lauran Neergaard WASHINGTON (AP) - An AIDS-free generation: It seems an audacious goal, considering how the HIV epidemic still is raging around the world. Yet more than 20,000 interna tional HIV researchers and activ ists will gather in the U.S. capital later this month with a sense of optimism not seen in many years - hope that it finally may be pos sible to dramatically stem the spread of the AIDS virus. “We want to make sure we don’t overpromise,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health’s infectious disease chief, told The Associated Press. But, he said, “I think we are at a turn ing point.” The big new focus is on try ing to get more people with HIV treated early, when they’re first infected, instead of waiting un til they’re weakened or sick, as the world largely has done un til now. Staying healthier also makes them less likely to infect others. That’s a tall order. But stud ies over the past two years have shown what Fauci calls “striking, sometimes breathtaking results,” in preventing people at high risk ofHIV from getting it in some of the hardest-hit countries, using this treatment-as-prevention and some other protections. Now, as the International AIDS Conference returns to the U.S. for the first |ime in 22 years, the question is whether the world will come up with the money and the know-how to put the best combinations of protections into practice, for AIDS-ravaged poor countries and hot spots in devel oped nations as well. “We have the tools to make it happen,” said Dr. Elly Katabira, president of the International AIDS Society, which organizes tected HIV in those carrying the virus only 92 percent of the time. the world’s largest HIV con ference, set for July 22-27. He points to strides already in Bo tswana and Rwanda in increas ing access to AIDS drugs. But Fauci cautioned that mov ing those tools into everyday life is “a daunting challenge,” given the cost of medications and the difficulty in getting people to take them for years despite pov erty and other competing health and social problems. In the U.S., part of that chal lenge is complacency. Despite 50,000 new HIV infections here every year, an AP-GfK poll finds that very few people in the Unit ed States worry about getting the virus. Also, HIV increasingly is an epidemic of the poor, minorities and urban areas such as the Dis trict of Columbia, where the US approves 1st rapid, take-home HIV test By Matthew Perrone WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first over-the-counter HIV test, allowing Americans to check themselves for the virus that causes AIDS in the privacy of their homes. The OraQuick test detects the presence of HIV in saliva collected using a mouth swab. The test is designed to return a result within 20 to 40 minutes. Government officials estimate one-fifth, or about 240,000 people, ofthe 1.2 million HIV carriers in the U.S. are not aware they are in fected. Testing is one of the chief means of slowing new infections, which have held steady at about 50,000 per year for two decades. FDA officials said the test is aimed at people who might not other wise get tested. The company’s marketing efforts will focus on popu lations at greatest risk of being infected, including gay and bisexual men, African Americans and Hispanics. HIV awareness groups hailed the approval as an important step in expanding testing for the virus. “This test will allow anyone to empower themselves to know their HIV status when, how and with whom they want to,” said Tom Donohue, founding director of Who’s Positive. HIV eventually develops into AIDS, unless treated with antiviral drugs. AIDS causes the body’s immune system to break down, lead ing to infections which become fatal. The FDA previously approved several HIV test kits designed to be used at home, although those kits - which usually require a blood sample - must be sent to a laboratory to be developed. FDA stressed in its approval announcement that the test is not 100 percent accurate. A trial conducted by Orasure showed the home test correctly jie- That means the test could miss one person for every 12 HIV-infected people who use the kit. The test was accurate 99 percent in ruling out HIV in patients not carrying the virus. That means the test would incorrectly identify one patient as having HIV for every 5,000 HIV-negative people tested. (Continued On Page 15) rate of infection rivals some developing countries. The con ference will spotlight this city’s aggressive steps to fight back: A massive effort to find the un diagnosed, with routine testing in some hospitals, testing vans that roam the streets, even free tests at a Department of Motor Vehicles office, and then rapidly getting those patients into care. “These are the true champi ons,” Dr. Mohammed Akhter, director of the city’s health de partment, said of patients who faithfully take their medication. “They’re also protecting their community.” . (Continued On Page 15) By Allen Reed FAYETTEVILLE (AP) - Days after the Republican- controlled General Assembly finished reworking the Racial Justice Act, lawyers are already moving to test the boundaries of the new law. Prosecutors and defense at torneys met in the Cumberland County courthouse on July 6 to work out preliminary details on how four North Carolina death row inmates will have their sentences reviewed under the rolled-back act. Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks refused requests from Assistant Cumberland District Attorney Rob Thompson for the judge to take himself off the case or postpone future hearings indefinitely. He also ruled pros ecutors had two weeks to give the defense evidence collected related to the Racial Justice Act. Thompson didn’t mince words with how the state feels about the flood of inmates at tempting to scale back their sen tences. “We consider it to be an at tack,” Thompson said. “The defense is telling us you chose juries in a racist manner and we take issue with that every single time it’s said and every single way it’s said and we wish to de fend ourselves.” Four inmates, all convicted of brutal murders, are seeking to have their death sentences less ened to life in prison under the Racial Justice Act, which allows appeals if racial bias during the trial is proved. They are Tilmon Golphin, a 34-year-old black man; Quin- tel Augustine, a 34-year-old black man; Christina Walters, a 33-year-old American Indian woman; and Jeffrey Meyer, a 45-year-old European man. All were convicted of first degree murder in Cumberland County. Lawmakers scaled back the Racial Justice Act during the summer legislative session by limiting the use of statistics that can be used to prove racial bias and legislating that statistics alone are not sufficient to prove bias. The Legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Beverly Per due’s veto of the changes July 2. This puts into limbo almost all the state’s more than 150 death row inmates, nearly all of whom applied for life in prison under the 2009 law. The revised law makes clear the framework for future con victs, but it is unknown if exist ing appeals made by prisoners will be upheld under the law at the time they applied or under the scaled-back law. The July 6 preliminary hear ing was the first step in a lengthy and costly process that will al low the court system to work out the issue. The first item heard in the pre liminary hearing was a motion by the prosecution to remove Judge Weeks from the case. Weeks, one of only a handful of black Superior Court judges in North Carolina, is the only judge to reduce a sentence under the original Racial Justice Act. Thompson, who unsuccess fully tried to have Weeks re moved from the previous racial justice case, cited new language in the reworked law that permits judges to be used as witnesses. If Weeks is a witness, Thompson argued, he cannot serve as judge. “It says judicial officials,” Thompson said. “That shows clear legislative intent that the state can now call judges.” Weeks ruled that despite the new language, he would not be able to serve as a witness. “Nothing has changed...,” Weeks said. “There is clear case law indicated that judges are not permitted to testify as to the mental impressions, mental pro cesses or thought processes in cases.” The lawyers also contested the rescheduling of a July 23 hearing. Thompson requested the hearing date be postponed 105TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION The family and friends of Mrs. Lucille Ervin celebrated her birthday on July 7-8, with a cookout at her home on Massey Ave., Durham. She was born July 7, 1907 in Charleston, S.C. She moved to Durham in the early 1930s and later married. She is retired from Duke Hospital after 38 years of service. She is a member of St. Mark AME Zion Church. The cookout was attended by several friends and family from Virginia, South Carolina and her church family. Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray Durham’s Own Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray Expected to be Elevated to Episcopal Sainthood; Annual Celebration of Murray’s Life and Legacy - July 18 The Episcopal Church will be voting during its General Conven tion in early July to include Durham reared Pauli Murray in Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints. If all goes as planned Murray will be honored as a saint for her advocacy of the universal cause of freedom and as the first African American female priest or dained by the Episcopal Church. St. Titus’ Episcopal and the Pauli Murray Project are hosting the annual celebration ofthe life and legacy ofthe Rev. Pr. Pauli Murray on Wed., July 18 at 6:30 pm at 400 Moline St., to mark this occasion. Bishop Michael Curry will serve as the celebrant and Rev. Roxane Gwyn will offer the sermon. A choir made up of representatives of Durham’s Episcopal congregations will sing. Everyone is invited to the service and the reception that will follow on the church grounds. “Pauli Murray had an agenda for the human good that was constant and unswerving” says Bishop Michael Curry. “As a descendent of slaves and slaveholders, people who were members ofthe Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, she is a symbol for the importance of bringing different worlds together, even in midst of great pain.” The Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray (1910-1985) was a nationally and in ternationally known advocate for human rights and social justice who grew up with her grandparents Robert and Mrs. Cornelia Fitzgerald on Carroll Street in Durham. She lived at the crossroads of all of the important social movements of 20th Century America. In 1977, at age 66, she was the first African American woman to be ordained as Episcopal priest, offering communion for first time at Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill where her grandmother had been baptized as a ' C indefinitely until he had a statis tical expert ready. He suggested that because the convicted kill ers can at best get life in prison, there’s no need to rush. “If we went forward on the 23rd without an expert, we might as well be in a boxing ring with our hands tied behind our backs blindfolded on our knees and hogtied,” Thompson said. (Continued On Page 15)
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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July 14, 2012, edition 1
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