DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2016 TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
VOLUME95-NUMBER41
Justices weigh dispute
over racial bias in jury
By Mark Sherman
WASHINGTON (AP) - There
was nothing subtle about the
ethnic slurs a juror in Colorado
is reported to have made during
deliberations over a Hispanic de
fendant charged with inappropri
ately touching teenage girls.
Two other jurors claim their
colleague determined that
Daniel Blue III
defendant Miguel Angel Pena
Rodriguez was guilty because
Pena Rodriguez is “Mexican,
and Mexican men take whatever
they want.”
Now the Supreme Court will
decide how to reconcile two
tenets of the legal system that
clash in Pena Rodriguez’s case:
trial by an impartial jury and se
crecy in jury deliberations.
The court beared argument
Oct. 11 in Pena Rodriguez’s bid
to upend his criminal conviction.
The Constitution guarantees
criminal defendants a trial by an
impartial jury. Secrecy in jury
deliberations is an American le
gal principle that goes back more
than 200 years.
The high court has resisted
the call in earlier cases to ex
amine what was said in the jury
room. Secrecy, embodied in state
and federal rules, is intended to
promote the finality of a verdict
and shield jurors from outside
influences.
In Pena R odriguez’s case, no
other juror was alleged to have
said anything improper and all
12 jurors, including the two who
reported the inappropriate com
ments, voted to convict him.
In 2014, the justices unani
mously reaffirmed the sanctity of
jury deliberations. A motorcycle
rider who lost a civil lawsuit over
a grievous injury he suffered in
a traffic accident sought a new
trial. He based his claim on one
juror’s report that a second juror
said during deliberations that
her daughter had been at fault
in a similar case and a lawsuit
against the daughter would have
“ruined her life.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s
opinion in that case left open the
possibility that some comments
might go too far.
“There may be cases of ju
ror bias so extreme that, almost
by definition, the jury trial right
has been abridged,” Sotomayor
wrote in a footnote to her
(Continued On Page 3)
Dan Blue III For
State Treasurer
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Most people who know Daniel Blue III agree that he is disciplined,
studied, principled, and one of the sharpest people in or out of politics.
Thanks to the legacy of his father, Democratic Senate Minority
Leader Daniel T. Blue Jr. - formerly the first African-American
speaker of the NC House - Dan III has rarely known life outside of
politics, except for when he worked on Wall Street in New York City
over 15 years ago.
Today, Dan III, 43, is jumping head first into his first bid for
elective office, running to become NC state treasurer succeeding
fellow Democrat and incumbent Janet Cowell, who has endorsed
him. His Republican opponent is former state Rep. Dale Folwell
of Winston-Salem, who also once served as head of the state
Employment Security Division.
The state treasurer manages North Carolina’s retirement system
and $90 billion pension fund, administers the state’s health care plan,
and maintains North Carolina’s Triple A credit rating.
“North Carolina deserves fiscally responsible leadership
that respects and protects the public .employees, taxpayers, and
communities throughout the state,” Blue says about why he is
running. His biography certainly reads like a young man seeking to
prepare himself for bigger things.
The Raleigh native is a graduate of W. G. Enloe High School,
and Duke University, where he earned his B.S. in Engineering,
arid minored in public policy studies. He also studied finances at
Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, earning a Masters of Business
Administration, and Duke’s School of Law, graduating with a Juris
Doctor.
Well -rounded in key areas, Blue worked at GlaxoWellcome
Pharmaceuticals, helping to launch Healthmatics. Shortly after, Dan
III moved to New York City to become an investment banker at Bear,
Stearns & Co. on Wall Street. He was there in New York during the
Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and vividly recalls living through the
ordeal.
In 2004, on the advice of his mother, Edna Earle Blue, Dan
III moved back to North Carolina, starting his own company,
Pharmaceutical Institute, which trained biotech professionals. He
later sold the successful company, and joined his father’s Raleigh
firm, working alongside his younger brother Damien. Dan III handled
debt financing for large companies and government agencies, but
also advised small businesses. His work was recognized in 2015 by
the Triangle Business Journal.
Blue is married to educator Traci C. Blue, and the couple has two
children.
A recent Public Policy Polling survey had Blue leading Republican
Folwell 38 to 37 percent, with many still undecided. The two have
squared off in several joint appearances, debating North Carolina’s
controversial HB 2 law that prohibits transgender people from using
public bathrooms contrary to their birth gender (Blue says the law is
“problematic” and has cost the state millions in lost business);
sitting on corporate boards (Blue says he won’t “for pay or play”);
and helping school systems meet their fiscal needs (Blue is for it).
104-YEAR-OLD OPENS DURHAM CITY COUNCIL
MEETING - Mrs. Catherine Ferrell, a very popular and nimble
104-year-old Durham resident, led the Durham City Council in
the Pledge of Allegiance at the October 3rd meeting of the coun
cil.
Mrs. Ferrell is a long-term member of Mt. Gilead Baptist
Church on Dowd Street. She is very active in the National Coun
cil of Negro Women (NCNW) and several other Durham orga
nizations. Mrs. Ferrell was crowned the “Queen” of Healthy
Seniors during a recent program at the Durham Center for Se
nior Life.
She recently renewed her NC Driver’s license for another five
years.
Mrs. Ferrell was born on October 10,1912.
vec
W
Ms. Linda Coleman
Linda Coleman Seeks
Lt. Gov Office Again
By Cash Michaels
Contributing Writer
North Carolina families
aren't being treated fairly
by this economy, or their
state government, says Linda
Coleman, who is running once
again for lieutenant governor.
She wants to change that,
which is why she’s back four
years after her first bid to fight
first-term Lt. Governor Dan
Forest, who defeated Coleman
by a slim margin in 2012. She
feels the arch-conservative and
other GOP lawmakers leading
the NC General Assembly have
done more harm than good in
North Carolina, especially after
passage of voter suppression and
HB 2 laws.
“The Republican majority
running things in Raleigh
continues to unravel so much
of what built our great state...,”
Coleman says on her campaign
website, “... and all the while
they’ve had a cheering partner in
our lieutenant governor. It’s time
for a different approach.”
(Continued On Page 3)
If Coleman indeed wins on
November 8, she would be only
the second African-American
in the history of the state to be
a member of the NC Council of
State [the late Ralph Campbell
Jr., former state auditor, was
the first] - a constitutional
panel of the state’s nine top
elected officials, chaired by the
governor, who make important
decisions about the borrowing of
money, the sale of state property,
and other matters.
Beyond being the next in line
constitutionally in case, for some
reason, the elected governor is
unable to fulfill his duties, or
presiding over important events
in the governor’s absence, the It.
governor also presides over the
NC Senate, voting there only to
break a tie. The It. governor also
chairs various state boards and
commissions, including the state
Board of Education and board of
Community Colleges.
The office of It. governor can
(Continued On Page 3)
McCrory: ECU band anthem
protest 'extremely inappropriate’
GREENVILLE (AP) - North Carolina Gov. Pat Mc
Crory says it was “extremely inappropriate” for East
Carolina University band members to kneel during the
national anthem in a protest against racial injustice and
police brutality.
The governor told Greenville media outlets his opinion
about actions by the 19 members last weekend while the
band played before the ECU football game. McCrory said
Oct. 7 band members have every “right to express their
1st Amendment rights outside the stadium” and there are
societal rules and guidelines when people wear a band
uniform.
The protest turned up emotions on ECU’s campus dur
ing and after the game. Chancellor Cecil Staton initially
put out a release supporting the students, but band offi
cials said later additional protests would not be tolerated.
The school’s next home football game is Oct. 13.
Former NAACP leader
Rachel Dolezal tapped
for MLK day event
CARY (AP) - Former Washington state NAACP leader
Rachel Dolezal, who was criticized last year for passing her
self off as black, has been tapped to speak at a North Caro
lina Martin Luther King Day celebration in January.
The Raleigh News & Observer reports the theme of
the MLK Dreamfest Celebration in Cary, North Carolina,
“Healing Race Relations through Conversation and Partici
pation.”
Event organizer Al Cohen tells the newspaper that Dolezal
was “depicted as a major villain through media because of
her preference of racial identity.” He says Dolezal commit
ted no crime, adding that “She only had an affinity for a
group of people, and she served her community well.”
Dolezal has acknowledged that she is “Caucasian biolog
ically,” but says she identifies as black.