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^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