evil
C2‘^h
inliliinlililininiliiliiilll
WILS 06/£0/95
WILSON LIBRRRY
M C COLLECTION
UNC-CH
chrpel hill
VOl-uivic Oki - NUMBER 6
NC £7514
"is
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA — SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2004
TELEPHONE 019) 682-2913
PRICE:30 CENTS
With successes in
other states, N.C.
tries hand at pubiic
financing for judges
By Gary D. Robertson
RALEIGH (AP) - Four years ago, in an unsuccessful effort to remain
chief justice of North Carolina’s highest court, Henry Frye spent an eye
popping $907,491 on his campaign,
Frye, the first black man to serve as chief justice, was familiar to
voters, having served as a member of the state House of Representatives
and on the state Supreme Court for 17 years. But he lost, despite out-
spending his opponent by a 4-to-l margin and running television ads.
The prospect of a $1 million judicial campaign, plus worries that the
pressure to raise money could raise questions about the partiality of
judges, caused the state to take matters into its own hands.
This year. North Carolina begins what is being touted as the nation’s
first full public financing system for appellate judicial campaigns, a
voluntary program that promises to fully underwrite general election
campaigns for judges who agree to strict fund-raising limits in the pri
mary.
North Carolina is one of 39 states that continue to elect at least some
judges. The system applies to candidates for North Carolina’s two
statewide appellate courts, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
Four already have signed on.
"I can spend more time out on the campaign trail meeting the people
and debating the issues," said Doug Berger, who is running for a Court of
Appeals seat and agreed to the fund-raising restrictions.
Candidates who follow fund-raising restrictions set by the Legislature
can receive $137,500 for a Court of Appeals race and $201,300 for a
Supreme Court race, for use in the general election.
The state’s foray into public financing represents a comeback for the
idea, which first came into vogue in the post-Watergate era of the 1970s.
Presidential campaigns have been federally financed since that time,
but a Washington campaign reform group has said that system faces the
threat of insolvency by 2008 unless more money is raised by taxpayers.
More candidates also are foregoing the system during the primary sea
son to exceed the limits, including Steve Forbes in 1996 and George W.
Bush in 2000. Democratic candidates John Kerry and Howard Dean
joined Bush this election cycle.
"There are blows to the public financing system, but it’s still hanging
on," said Steve Weissman, associate director for policy at the Campaign
Finance Institute in Washington.
Even before North Carolina instituted judicial financing for this year’s
election, recent experiments in two other states brought renewed hope to
reformers.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano was elected in 2002 by agreeing to limit
outside donations in exchange for state funding of her campaign. So did
over a third of those elected to the state Legislature.
And Maine state Sen. Bill Norbert estimates two-thirds of his state’s
legislative candidates will participate in a public financing program this
year.
“It’s made elections cheaper," Norbert said. "We are able to recruit can
didates that otherwise wouldn’t run. ... They can go out and campaign on
the issues."
North Carolina has resisted applying public financing to legislative or
gubernatorial campaigns, but lawmakers decided in 2002 that it was time
to rein in spending on judicial campaigns.
Average spending by candidates to the Court of Appeals, where trial
court rulings are appealed, rose 60 percent between 1998 to 2002, to
$81,727, according to the campaign reform group Democracy North
Carolina.
The group also said more than ,54 percent of the money raised in 2002
appellate court races came from attorneys or lawyer organizations. Politi
cal action and party committees organized by a company’s employees
also donated heavily.
Legal experts worry about the perception that campaign contributions
could buy influence in cases - concerns that were highlighted in Frye’s
campaign against then-associate justice Beverly Lake Jr.
A month before the 2000 general election, Frye heard arguments in a
death penalty case by an attorney who was raising money for his
campaign. Separately, Lake listened to a lawyer from a law firm whose -
associate, a Lake fund-raiser, was in the audience.
State Sen. Wib Gulley, D-Durham, a co-author of the clean elections
law, said changes were needed.
"When folks stand before a judge, they really think the judge is focus
ing on the merits of the case, and not focusing on which of the litigants
before them contributed to their campaign in a major way," Gulley said.
Frye’s record spending was a further source of concern,
"I think it made the camel carry a heavier load, or it may have broken
its back," said former state Supreme Court Associate Justice Harry
Martin, who raised only $30,000 to win his last election in 1986. "I think
that that race demonstrated the problem."
The new program is mostly being financed by general tax revenues, A
checkoff box, similar to the one seen on federal tax returns for presiden
tial campaign financing, has been added to state tax returns. Some 2,000
tax preparers have been alerted to the change.
Radio and television ads are highlighting the changes, including one
that features two former governors. Democrat Jim Hunt and Republican
Jim Holshouser.
Another new feature this year is the removal of party affiliations from
the ballot, making the judicial races nonpartisan. The change was op
posed by Republicans, who now hold six of the seven seats on the
Supreme Court after decades of Democratic dominance.
' High spending "wasn’t a problem until Republicans started being
elected," quipped state Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, who ran twice un
successfully for the Court of Appeals.
Because judges tend not to be known statewide, voters often depend on
party affiliation in making their choices at the polls. With the labels now
eliminated, political consultants estimate it will take up to $300,000 to
run an effective statewide campaign.
"I’m just worried that there won’t be enough funding ... to really make
it very effective," said Stan Sprague with Court Watch of North Carolina,
3 judicial watchdog group.
SMILEY
Tavis Smiley Comes to
Durham, To Broadcast
From N.C. Mutual
On Friday, February 13, at 9 a.m. author and political ac
tivist Tavis Smiley will conduct a live broadcasting of the
Tavis Smiley Show from NPR at North Carolina Mutual Life
Insurance Company. The broadcast will take place in the
corporate headquarters auditorium and is sponsored in part
by WNCU 90.7 FM.
"North Carolina Mutual is proud to host the Tavis Smiley
Show. It is great exposure not only for the company but for
the African-American businesses in Durham," said Rodney
Hood, assistant vice president of Marketing at North Caro
lina Mutual.
Tavis Smiley has been named by Time magazine as one of
America’s 50 most promising young leaders. A former pub
lic affairs talk show host on Black Entertainment Television
(BET), Tavis is an advocate for change.
Some of the panelist for the broadcast will include area uni
versity chancellors and corporate CEO’s of Durham’s black
business community. James Speed, Jr. president and CEO of
North Carolina Mutual also a panelist said, "Since our exis
tence in 1898, North Carolina Mutual has been on the fore
front for economic and political development and change in
the Durham Community. We are excited to host a program
that focuses on the needs and issues of the African-American
community."
There are a limited amount of general tickets available, to
reserve your free ticket please contact Ms, Edith Thorpe,
general manager of WNCU 90,7 FM at 530-6122 or visit the
radio station located in the Farrison-Newton Building on the
campus of North Carolina Central University.
N.C. man cleared of all
charges in 1984 murder
case in Winston-Salem
By William L. Holmes
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina man
who served 18 years for a slaying that DNA testing proved
he didn’t commit left court finally free after a judge vacated
the charges.
Darryl Hunt, 38, was convicted twice and imprisoned for
the 1984 murder of Deborah Sykes, a copy editor for the
now closed Winston-Salem Sentinel.
Sykes also was raped, but Hunt wasn’t charged with that
crime.
"When there is a horrible crime ... there are many victims,"
Superior Court Judge Anderson Cromer said in court.
"We saw two of them today," he said, referring to Sykes’
husband and mother. "We have another victim who has been
in prison 18 years."
Cromer had signed a release order Dec. 24 for Hunt, who
walked out of the Forsyth County Jail to cheers from his sup
porters and a firm hug from his 35-year-old wife, April. At
the time, Cromer released Hunt on unsecured bond of
$250,000 after the emergency hearing, held on a day when
the courthouse was closed for the Christmas holiday.
Hunt said then he wasn't upset with anyone in the justice
system.
"I’ve tried not to be angry or bitter," Hunt said. "That’s
what helped me these 19 years."
The Rev. John Mendez, chairman of the committee that has
worked to free Hunt, said when Hunt was convicted there
was a sense of shock in the city’s black community.
Willard E. Brown, 43, was charged Dec. 22 with murder,
rape, kidnapping and armed robbery. The DNA in a semen
sample takenTrom Sykes matched Brown’s DNA and he was
arrested while in the Forsyth County jail on another charge.
Brown confessed to Sykes’ murder while being booked.
Hunt was first convicted in Sykes' death in 1985. He won a
new trial after a city manager’s report blasted the police de
partment for shoddy work in the investigation and the State
Bureau of Investigation began its own inquiry.
Hunt was convicted again at a second trial in 1990.
Even though DNA testing four years later excluded Hunt as
the source of the semen collected from the crime scene, a
judge, denied Hunt’s motion for a thiui trial, saying the DNA
results didn't necessarily clear him of mvolvcment.
Hunt continued to fight the conviction. Earlier this year, at
the request of his attorneys, a new round of DN.A testing was
ordered to compare the Sykes sample against state and feder
al databa.ses of DNA profiles taken from com acted Felons,
That testing turned up the match with Brown.
Police suspected Brown in the Sykes ca.se early on after he
was identified by the victim in another downtown rape. In
vestigators ruled him out because they believed he wa-
prison the day Sykes died, but learned last week he had been
released on parole two months before Sykes died.
Late last year, the Forsyth County district altornc) asked
the bar association to set up a panel that will review in
nocence claims from inmates who want DNA testing in their
cases.
Legal experts said they knew of no other jurisdiction w here
a district attorney has asked for a local panel to review such
c I aims.
State law already provides for inmates to request DNA test
ing in ca.ses where the testing was not available at trial.
Lionel Tate is Finally
Free in Florida
Special to the NNPA from the
Westside Gazette
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.
(NNPA) - For the first time in three
years Lionel Tate savored the sweet
taste of freedom January 26, after
being released from the
Okeechobee Juvenile Offender
Correctional Center into his
mother’s custody.
The release followed a bond hear
ing in Broward County before Cir
cuit Judge Joel Lazarus, the same
judge who sentenced him to life in
prison without parole in 2001.
The draconian life sentence
stemmed from a first-degree mur
der conviction that came as a result
of a brutal 1999 beating that Tate,
then 12, inflicted upon his younger
playmate, 6-year-old Tiffany
Eunick. Many believe the first
grader’s tragic, untimely death was
the direct result of mock wrestling
moves on Tate’s part that got out of
hand that day at the boy’s Pem
broke Pines home.
An autopsy later revealed that
little Tiffany had sustained a
lacerated liver in addition to multi
ple interna! injuries. The incident
occurred as Lionel’s mother
Kathleen Grossett-Tate, a Florida
Highway Patrol officer babysitting
Eunick, slept in an upper bedroom.
Tate, whose pre-adolescenl chub
biness has been replaced by the
leaner, fully developed physique of
a young man, was the youngest
child in U.S. history to be
sentenced to life in prison without
the possibility of parole. To his
credit, while at the Okeechobee Ju
venile Correctional Center. Tate
TATE
took part in the Junior ROTC, and
was an honor roll .audent.
The Fourth District Court of Ap
peals finally overturned Tate’s
murder conviction on the grounds
that his mental competency had
never been prooerlv
to the trial to determine if he was
fully capable of understanding the
complex legal proceedings he was
involved in.