34 Pages This Week
Thursday, January 18,1990
By TONYA V. SMITH _
Chronide Staff Writer
Sammy Lee Mitchell, the man
charged earlier this week in the
1984 stabbing death of Deborah B.
~ Sykes, is scheduled for a first court
appearance Monday, said District
Attorney Warren Sparrow.
Mr. Mitchell, 34, is scheduled
to be arraigned - called before the
court to hear the formal charges
against him and respond to them,
but he couid waive that process, Mr.
Sparrow said.
"He has the option of signing a
waiver which says the judge or the
DA does not have to read the for
mal charges to him," the district
attorney explained. "But most of the
time, when the death penalty could
be imposed, there is an arraign
ment"
Darryl E. Hunt, a close friend
of Mr. Mitchell's, was tried and con
victed of raping and stabbing Mrs.
Sykes in 1985, but that conviction
was overturned by the state
Supreme Court last May. Surry
County District Attorney H. Dean
Bowman has yet to decide whether
he will retry Mr. Hunt on charges
that he killed Mrs. Sykes.
The North Carolina Bar
excused Mr. Sparrow from the case
after it ruled that his involvement
would constitute a conflict of inter
est because two of his assistants,
Todd Burke and Vincent F. Rabil,
were members of Mr. Hunt's
defense team.
Prosecutors must now decide
how Mr. Mitchell will be tried, Mr.
Sparrow said. If Mr. Bowman
decides to retry Mr. Hunt, the two
defendants in the case could be tried
together. Or, Mr. Sparrow could
represent the state against&ammy
Mitchell. /
"Thafs something vre haven't
made a final decision on," Mr. Spar
row said. "At this point we're dis
cussing it We don't have a target
date." 7 r
The most recent.charges pair
the two friends, Mr. Hunt and Mr.
Mitchell, together again. Both were
convicted in 1983 in the beating
^tleath of Arthur Lee Wilson. Mr.
Mitchell was serving a 50-year con
viction in the Randolf County
Prison and Mr. Hunt was in the
Southern Correctional Institution in
Troy. Mr. Hunt's conviction in the
Wilson case was overturned by the
state Court of Appeals, but Mr.
Mitchell's was upheld. Mr. Hunt
was serving a life in prison term for
the second degree murder of Mrs.
Sykes before he was released on
bond last November.
On Aug. 10,1984, the day Mrs.
Sykes' was killed, Mr. Mitchell said
he and Mr. Hunt were together at a
friend's house. He provided that
Please see page A9
Sammy Mltclwll
More blacks vie
for countyseat
23-yr-old seeks state office
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronide Staff Writer
A first grade teacher, former law student and the
county's first Afro-American commissioner are among
those who've recently announced their bids for public
office.
Annette Beatty, an educator at Southwest Elemen
tary School, filed earlier this week and will challenge
Chairmarf^Jdftn Hoi le?M? for h i s seat on th^
Forsyth County Board of Commissioners.
"I have decided to run for two particular reasons,"
. said Miss Beatty, 38. "First, I'm real concerned about
the quality of life in Winston-Salem. The quality of life
includes the environment, the development of social
and economic standards and procedures. And a good
quality of life is necessary to ensure the progress of
Forsyth County.
"I'm also concerned about the attitudes of Forsyth
County residents because I believe attitudes that are
prevalent in our community have a direct bearing on
Please see page A6
Remembering Dr. King
Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., looks on Monday
with her daughter Bemlce, left, as Martin Luther King III places a wreath at the graveof Dr. King
at the Martin Luther King Center In Atlanta. The ceremonies were part of King Week '90.
Associated Press Laser Photo
Aldermen hear
panel's report,
OK drug policy
By TONYA V.SMITH
Chronicle Staff Writer
Two housing projects, designed to lure upwardly
mobileTttre-Americans back to East Winston, a shopping
center and a business park could metamorphose a blight
I^S^inMTmo^S^n5iar^cortpetiLCvc_Mi^<Tln?i^aTyrjucrirr
tive for Winston-Salem, consultant Clifton W. Henry told
the city Bound of A Jdermen Mondiy flight . * .
In response to his presentation, on behalf of the East
Winston Economic Development Task Force, the alder
men directed the city staff to prepare a comprehensive
implementation and funding plan for the four projects.
Staff will report back to the aldermen in March.
For nearly two years, the mayor-appointed task force
has been developing a strategy to promote economic
development in East Winston. About a year ago, tKe task
force retained the services of Hammer, Siler, George
Associates, a consulting firm in Silver Spring, Md., and
P/ease see page Ad
Local NAACP officials
get share of hate mail
By ANGELA WRIGHT
Chronicle Managing Editor
The local branch of the Nation
al Association for the Advancement
of Colored People has not received
any mail bombs, but president Wal
ter Marshall said recently that hate
mail is a constant
Mr. Marshall said that the FBI
recently advised him and other
NAACP officers to scrutinize
incoming mail carefully and to call
authorities if they find any suspi
cious packages.
A rash of mail bombings last
month in Alabama, Florida and
Georgia prompted FBI agents to
alert NAACP officials across the
Carolinas to the possibility of dan
ger.
One of the bombs was discov
ered at the NAACP headquarters in
Jacksonville, Fla. It was safely
removed. Two other bombs explod
ed, one killed a federal judge in
Birmingham; the other killed a
lawyer in Savannah.
Mr. Marshall recently revealed
a sample of the type of hate mail
received in the local office. It is a
voluminous package - more than
200 pages - of racial insults and
Walter Marshall
news clippings highlighting stories
that identify suspects atoi criminals
Please see page A9
Black enrollment up at N.C. schools
GREENSBORO (AP) - The num
ber of black students in North Caroli
na's universities has gone up, officials
say, while across the nation black
enrollment has been declining.
Officials at North Carolina's univer
*
sities say their intensified efforts
aimed at recruiting black students has
lecT to a black enrollment increase of
22 percent at the state's 16 public uni
versity campuses between 1976 and
1986.
'The rise in black enrollment is -
good news for all North Carolinians,"
UNC President C.D? Spangler said>in
a report to the Board of Governors in
^November, "J am heartened that our
efforts to encourage them to continue
their education is paying off."
Meanwhile, across the rest of the
nation, the line is going in the oppo
site direction, especially for low- and
middle-income blacks.
An annual survey by the American
Council on Education released Mon
day shows that college enrollment for
blacks and Hispanics has dropped sig
nificantly since the mid-1970s.
The report says that since 1976 the
enrollment of 18-24 year olds who
are dependent on their families is up
3.6 percent for whites, but is down 12
percent for blacks.
The study describes those figures as
"an educational failure rate of intoler
able magnitude."
, But this academic year, black
enrollment in the University of North
Carolina system increased slightly
faster than the overall student popula
tion, officials told the Greensboro
News & Record
While total enrollment for 1989-90
rose z.9 percent, black enrollment
increased 3.3 percent, UNC officials
said
Black enrollment in the UNC sys
tem rose 4.2 percent at the five histor
ically black schools and 1.8 percent at
the predominantly white institutions.
It's difficult to pinpoint the reasons
North Carolina colleges are hiving
such success in attracting blacks.
Admissions officers interviewed
Monday offered these possibilities:
Please see page A9 N
Darryt Eu
gene Hunt: Trying for a new lease on life
By ANGELA WRIGHT
Chrorode Managing Editor
He now goes by the name Muhammad Atibah, and he still wears a broad-faced
grin that shows no hint of anger or resentment
The man, who is better known as Darryl Eugene Hunt, is calm, friendly and
humble, despite a five-year incarceration for crimes that many people say they
believe he did not commit
Two years later he was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1983 stabbing
death of Arthur Lee Wilson.
In May 1989, the state Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors improperly used
hearsay evidence to obtain a conviction in the Sykes case. The coun overturned that
conviction.
In October 1989, the N. C. Court of Appeals overturned Hunt's conviction in the
Wilson case.
Mr. Hunt has been "free" just short of
two months. He was released from prison
on the eve of Thanksgiving, after the two
murder convictions for which he was
imprisoned were overturned.
He said recently that he has spent most
of the time since his release just readjust
ing to the outside world.
"/ want to give back to the community the support they have
given me, I know I'll never be able to do it. It will take me two
or three lifetimes. I give deepest thanks to this community."
- Darryl Hunt
Members of the Darryl Hunt Defense
Committee subsequently posted a $50,000
bond and called on District Attorney War
ren Sparrow to drop the charges against
Mr. Hunt in the Sykes case and reopen the
investigation.
Mr. Sparrow, however, turned the
Sykes case over to Surry County district
attorney H. Dean Bowman, who has not
"It was hard, at first, actually realizing that Tm out It took at least a week for it
to really dawn upon me that I was actually out," he said.
It is a tenuous freedom, haunted by the threat of being retried for both murders.
In June 1985, Mr. Hunt was convicted of the August 1984 murder of Deborah B.
Sykes. a copy editor with the now defunct Winston-Salem Journal -Sentinel.
The ease fueled racial tensions in the city. Mr. Hunt's supporters argued that he
was being railroaded bccause prosecutors were eager to punish an Afro-American
man for the murder of a white woman.
deckled whether to retry Mr. Hunt Mr. Sparrow has said that he intends to retry Mr.
Hunt for second-degree murder in the Wilson case.
The possibility of being retried doesn't seem ,to bother Mr. Hunt, who becomes
quite philosophical when asked about the matter.
'That's typical," he said calmly of Mr. Sparrow's announcement. "It's a political
thing. I'm being used as a pawn to keep him (Sparrow) a job. He knows I'm innocent,
but he's just doing his job.'L
Please see page A9
Darryl Hunt