Outgoing North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue pardoned Monday the Wilmington 10, a group of civil rights activists convicted of firebombing a grocery store four decades ago.
Perdue issued pardons of innocence for the nine black men and one white woman, citing racial bias in a case that saw the group receive prison sentences that totaled nearly 300 years for the 1971 firebombing of a white-owned business in the coastal city of Wilmington.
“These convictions were tainted by naked racism and represent an ugly stain on North Carolina’s criminal justice system that cannot be allowed to stand any longer,” Perdue said in a statement.
“Justice demands that this stain finally be removed.”
Although the sentences were commuted in 1978 and the convictions were overturned two years later for reasons of prosecutorial misconduct, the guilty verdict still hung over the group until now.
The pardon means that the 10 were forgiven and no longer deserve punishment.
“Free at Last!!!. God is a Good God!!!” tweeted Wayne Moore, who was 19 at the time of the firebombing.
Benjamin Chavis, a Wilmington 10 member who later became the national executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People black rights group, also hailed the long-awaited pardon.
“Wilmington 10 unchained: Thanks to NC Governor Perdue for Pardons of Innocence today: 40 year struggle for equal justice for all. God bless,” he said on Twitter.
Perdue said that one of the main factors that led her to grant the pardons were newly found handwritten notes from the prosecutor who picked the trial jury.
The notes showed that the prosecutor preferred white jurors believed to be members of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, describing them as “good,” and referred to at least one African American juror as an “Uncle Tom type.”
The prosecution’s key witness and two supporting witnesses also independently recanted their testimony after the trial, Perdue said.
“This conduct is disgraceful,” Perdue added.
“It is utterly incompatible with basic notions of fairness and with every ideal that North Carolina holds dear. The legitimacy of our criminal justice system hinges on it operating in a fair and equitable manner with justice being dispensed based on innocence or guilt — not based on race or other forms of prejudice.”
North Carolina pardons 'Wilmington 10' firebombers
