ROSEANNE'S RACIST TWEET REVEALS SHE FORGOT WHAT ERA WE ARE NOW LIVING IN

ROSEANNE'S RACIST TWEET REVEALS SHE FORGOT WE ARE NOW LIVING IN A NEW ANTI-RACISM ERA:

JIM CROW RACISM IS NO LONGER TOLERATED OR COMICAL.......NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ABUSE AGAINST WOMEN IS NO LONGER TOLERATED OR COMICAL........NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

EVERY MEDIA NETWORK NEEDS TO ADAPT STARBUCKS' ANTI-RACISM TRAINING MODEL FOR ALL EMPLOYEES, INCLUDING CELEBRITIES.

ABC WAS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT TO CANCEL ROSEANNE'S NEW SHOW.

TWEETING SUCH RACIST RHETORIC WAS DUMB & IRRESPONSIBLE.

THE BLACK VOTE IS STILL EXTREMELY VALUABLE.


Post Sources: CBS News, CNN, Fox News, NY Times, Youtube


****** Roseanne Barr Crosses a Line, and ABC Draws One


There is, it turns out, a line. Early Tuesday morning, Roseanne Barr crossed it. And within half a day, ABC, though Ms. Barr had given the network its biggest hit of the past season, enforced it.

First, the comedian and star of the revived “Roseanne” leveled a dehumanizing insult at Valerie Jarrett, calling the African-American former adviser to Barack Obama the offspring of “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes.” Then she tried to pass off the slur, by way of halfhearted apology, as a “joke” — as if, somehow, a racist joke were any better than a racist statement.

Here’s the sad thing. Ms. Barr’s tweet, while shocking, was not unbelievable. What was truly surprising was that a commercial TV network took action against a valuable star, quickly and definitively, and in plain words.

“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” the ABC entertainment president, Channing Dungey, said in a statement.

You could criticize ABC for working with Ms. Barr, who has a long history of offenses, especially since she joined Twitter. You could argue that the network was just trying to stave off bad publicity or boycotts. You could wonder if behind-the-scenes troubles or declining ratings (common to many TV revivals) played a role.

But credit where due: ABC canceled its highest-rated show, a linchpin of its fall schedule, as a stand against its star’s racism. That decision will probably cut into the network’s advertising profits. There may be no perfect moral actors in this world, but that’s still a moral action.

As we’ve seen with #MeToo, which has taken figures like Louis C. K. and Matt Lauer off TV, this is the sort of decision that corporations in our society often make more quickly and punitively than voters. But it is not a step you can take for granted.

Take Donald Trump. Forget his statements as president or on the “Access Hollywood” bus. He began peddling the birther slur — that Mr. Obama, the first black president, was not born in the United States — while the fourth “Celebrity Apprentice” was on NBC. The network kept him as host for three more seasons, and aired one more on which he was executive producer.

In 2013, the “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson gave an interview likening “homosexual behavior” to bestiality and suggesting that black people in the South were more content before the civil rights movement. The A&E network suspended him for nine days before reversing its decision, less a slap than a tap on the wrist.

The “Roseanne” decision, on the other hand, will come at a price for ABC — and like any such step, will have collateral costs. In a Twitter post, Sara Gilbert, Ms. Barr’s co-star and an executive producer of the revival, deplored Ms. Barr’s comments as “abhorrent.” She added that the series was “separate and apart from the opinions of one cast member.”

There’s some truth to that last comment. “Roseanne,” the revival, was imperfect but complicated, trying to engage with important if volatile issues. At times, it had ugly racial overtones, including a snide swipe at ABC’s sitcoms about “black and Asian families” and references to “illegals.” At other times the show pushed back against her character, or even ridiculed her.

But finally, none of that matters. “Roseanne” is a story. The issue here was the real act of a real person, saying the sort of thing that leads to real corrosion in the real world when it becomes normalized.

Make no mistake: The “Roseanne” decision would also have been expensive if ABC hadn’t canceled the show. It’s just that the costs would have been borne, as they generally are, by vulnerable people whose tormentors would be emboldened by seeing someone famous and powerful get away with it.

For that matter, it would insult people in small towns like the Lanford, Ill., of “Roseanne” — towns like the one I grew up in — for a TV network to imply that the only way to represent them is by indulging racism.

The character Roseanne said something like that a quarter-century ago, when her son was reluctant to kiss a black girl in a school play. “I didn’t raise you to be some little bigot!” she told him. “Black people are just like us. They’re every bit as good as us, and any people who don’t think so is just a bunch of banjo-pickin’, cousin-datin’, barefoot embarrassments to respectable white trash like us!”

Corporations involved in controversies like this usually simply want them to disappear. This one, because “Roseanne” has long since been drafted into the culture war, probably won’t.

Even if the president, who praised “Roseanne” to his supporters as being “about us,” doesn’t weigh in, even if Ms. Barr herself stays off Twitter, recent history tells us people will seize on the opportunity to say that the p.c. thought police are repressing us, because a rich woman lost her job for calling a black woman an ape. ABC will have picked a side regardless.

At least it picked the right one here. The battle against bigotry is not just about bigots. It’s about those who reap the benefits of ignoring bigots, and still think they should be able to call themselves good people. When an institution like ABC takes a stand — in prime time, where people notice it — that matters.

I’ll be cynical again tomorrow. For now I’m glad that a corporation had an opportunity to think only of its bottom line, and chose to draw a line instead.

MARYLAND BLACK WOMAN THROWN INTO FREEZING STREET BY BALTIMORE HOSPITAL

MARYLAND BLACK WOMAN THROWN INTO FREEZING STREET BY BALTIMORE HOSPITAL:

AN AFRICAN HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL SAVED HER.

WASHINGTON DC & MARYLAND BLACK LEADERS TREAT MOST BLACK PEOPLE LIKE DRUG DEALERS AND CRIMINALS.

INCLUDING LOCAL BLACK VOTERS.

IT’S WORSE THAN JIM CROW.

DOES THE GOV OF MARYLAND REALLY CARE ABOUT BLACK VOTERS?

DO DC POLITICIANS REALLY CARE ABOUT BLACK VOTERS?

AFTER WITNESSING HOW BLACK PEOPLE ARE MISTREATED BY BLACK LEADERS IN DC & MD, I NO LONGER THINK THE DMV IS BETTER THAN NYC.


Sources: AP, CBS News, TIME, Yahoo News, The Independent, Washington Post, Youtube


******* Man who aided hospital patient discharged in gown shocked


The man who said he came to the aid of a woman discharged from a Baltimore hospital wearing only a gown and socks on a cold winter's night, says he was left outraged and stunned at how she was treated.

Imamu Baraka, identified in local reports as the person who sought to help the woman, told The Associated Press he was so angry he decided to record Tuesday night's events on cellphone video, fearing no one would believe him if he reported a woman being left at a bus stop like that.

"I saw the unthinkable: another human in a wheelchair being wheeled out in the dead of cold," he said in the phone interview Thursday evening.

He described frigid temperatures in the 30s and a cold wind blowing at the woman's hospital gown, exposing her to the elements.

Baraka, who said he has a psychotherapy practice in a building across the street from the Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus, said he rushed back to his office, retrieved his cellphone, returned and hit "record" while growing increasingly angry.

As a medical professional, the psychotherapist said he sought to keep his emotions in check even as he repeatedly challenged those who had wheeled the woman out to the street in the dark.

"At first I was shocked. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. And I move beyond that to the next level from being shocked. I became ... irritated and fearful for the young lady. And then I became angry," he recalled.

He added he failed to get satisfactory answers as he tried to help the woman.

Of those who brought her outdoors, he said: "I asked them three times, I asked them specifically, 'Are you going to leave this lady out here like this?' They kept walking. They then went inside of the building." He said he went and asked a security guard outside the hospital for a supervisor and was told "I am the supervisor."

Rebuffed, he said, he then went and tried to help the woman shelter in the bus stop while calling 911 for an ambulance. He said he asked the arriving ambulance crew where they would take her, and they replied "back to the hospital."

Recalled Baraka, "I said, 'Are you kidding me, they just dumped her on the curb.'"

It wasn't immediately clear what happened to the woman after she was driven back toward the hospital. But the hospital confirmed in a statement that the woman was discharged that Tuesday night.

Dr. Mohan Suntha, president and CEO of University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus, told a news conference on Thursday afternoon that the hospital had "failed" after the video posted on Facebook showed the unidentified woman mumbling and appearing disoriented in frigid weather outside. Suntha also said there were no excuses for what happened to the woman.

"We believe firmly that we provided appropriate medical care to a patient who came to us in need, but where we absolutely failed, and where we own that failure, is in the demonstration of basic humanity and compassion as a patient was being discharged from our organization after having received that care," he said.

He added that the woman wasn't mistreated while in the hospital's care and that the incident was isolated and that hospital officials were conducting an extensive internal review.

Said Suntha, "We do not believe that what occurred Tuesday night in any way defines who we are as an organization. There has been a lot of conversation since this incident came to light."

Dean Smith Is Dead At 83; He Challenged JIM CROW On The NC College Basketball Court (R.I.P.)

‪#‎DeanSmith‬

R.I.P. Coach DEAN SMITH; February 28, 1931 - February 7, 2015

A Man who Challenged North Carolina's JIM CROW culture on the College Basketball court.

He sincerely cared about his Players on and off the court.

I offer my condolences to Coach Smith's family.


ARTICLE: An Appreciation Of Dean Smith’s Life

Words will come pouring forth in the next few days from those who played for Dean Smith, those who coached for and against him and from the President of the United States, who awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom a little more than a year ago.

The news of the legendary North Carolina basketball coach’s death at age 83 is hardly shocking. He has been seriously ill with dementia for several years now. Knowing him and knowing the condition he has been in for a long time now, I think I can say with confidence that for those who loved him most, this is a blessing. Dean Smith was a very spiritual man and there is no doubt if he had any say in the matter, this escape would have come long ago.

As a coach, he had many great rivals, none more intense than the one he had for 17 seasons with Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski. On Sunday morning, Krzyzewski was getting gas when a text popped onto his phone telling him that Smith had died.

“I looked at it and said, ‘OH NO!’” Krzyzewski said. “Obviously, I knew he’d been sick, I knew he was in tough shape, but for some reason I never thought about him dying.” He paused. “Maybe that’s because he’s one of those people who you think is going to live forever.” He paused again and there was a catch in his voice when he continued. “Of course he will live forever. Not because of what he did but because of what he taught.”

That’s exactly it. Above all, Dean Smith was the ultimate teacher. Sure, he taught on the basketball court, all the extraordinary numbers that he produced are testament to that. But his teaching went way beyond that. He taught loyalty — by being loyal, often to a fault. He taught passion — not just about winning games, but about doing the right things in life. He was outspoken on issues that often didn’t make him very popular in the state where he lived, including the death penalty, a nuclear freeze and the Vietnam war.

The story about his involvement in desegregating restaurants in Chapel Hill in 1958 — when he was still an assistant coach — has now been told often, but for many years no one knew it had taken place. Not surprisingly, the first person to tell the story publicly wasn’t Smith, but the Rev. Robert Seymour, the minister at the Binkley Baptist Church, where Smith worshipped from 1958 until his death.

When I asked Smith to fill in details on that night, he said, “Who told you that story?” I told him it had been Seymour. He shook his head and said, “I wish he hadn’t done that.”

Surprised, I said, “Dean, you should be proud of doing something like that.”

He looked me in the eye and said, “John, you should never be proud of doing the right thing. You should just do the right thing.”

Talk about a teaching moment.

His competitiveness, even in a world filled with fanatic competitors, was legendary. He couldn’t stand losing a basketball game or a golf match or an argument. He didn’t lose many arguments because, inevitably, he was the smartest guy in the room.

He was one of the great innovators basketball has ever seen. His use of the four corners delay offense made opponents crazy, but it led to college basketball putting in a shot clock in 1985 — which was exactly what Smith wanted. As successful as he had been at slowing the game down, he knew that playing the game faster would be to his advantage because he almost always had the best players. The more possessions there were in a game, the more time there was for that talent to take control.

He wasn’t just innovative on the court. He was the first coach to insist that his seniors be recognized prior to their last home game. He started them all-- from stars to walk-ons — and if he had six seniors, they all started and North Carolina began the game with the other team shooting a technical foul free throw. No one thought to do that before Dean Smith.

Everyone who spent time with him has multiple stories about him: stories about his generosity, his dry humor, his legendary sarcasm. Smith NEVER cursed — not in practice, not in a game — never. But he could cut people down in an instant without ever raising his voice.

“In practice, he’d say, ‘Buzz, do you really think that was a good shot you just took?’” said Buzz Peterson, who was Michael Jordan’s roommate at UNC. “Before I could say anything, he’d say, ‘let’s ask your teammates what they thought. Or do you just want to tell me if you think that was the best shot we could have gotten right there.’ There was no hole deep enough to crawl into at that moment.”

All his players remember those moments, but they also remember the late night phone calls after they graduated, checking up on them or offering help when someone might be out of a job or when a marriage had gone south or a relative had been lost. It has often been said — accurately — that there was nothing Smith wouldn’t do for a member of the North Carolina basketball family.

That said, it often went beyond that. Smith recruited Bobby Hurley when he was in high school but Hurley went to Duke, where he helped the Blue Devils win two national championships. After Hurley had played his last college game, he received a letter from Smith, telling him how proud he should be of what he had accomplished in college.

No one better defines the cliché about the measure of a man’s life being the number of lives he touched than Dean Smith. I thought about that on Sunday morning when I first heard the news that he had passed away. It occurred to me that if Dean ever sat down and started listing all the people who meant something to him during his life, I wouldn’t crack the top 1,000. And yet, outside of family and close friends, very few people were more important to me than Dean — because of what he taught me about how to treat people and how to live your life.

I first met him when I was a college junior, when I introduced myself to him after Carolina had pounded Duke in a game in Chapel Hill. I had written a column a few weeks earlier in the Duke student newspaper urging Bill Foster, who was then Duke’s coach, to look at the model Smith had built 10 miles down the road as he tried to rebuild at Duke.

“Oh yes, I read the column you wrote about Bill and how to rebuild at Duke,” Smith said — almost causing me to faint. “I thought you were very fair to us — especially for someone from Duke.”

Years later, I was sitting in his office, working in the nascent stages of the biography I had wanted to write about him for years. This was 2009 and he had finally agreed to let me write the book. Sadly, his extraordinary memory was already failing him then and it was becoming apparent to me that I had blown it — I had gotten him to agree to the project too late.

As we sat there on a summer afternoon, my cell phone buzzed and I could see that it was Lefty Driesell calling. Thinking Dean might get a kick out of talking to his old rival, I answered, told Dean who it was and handed him the phone.

“You really gonna let a Duke guy do a book on you?” Lefty — a Duke graduate — said to Dean. “You gonna trust a Duke guy like that?”

Dean looked at me and smiled. “I trust him,” he said, “because I don’t think of him as a Duke guy but as a GOOD guy.”

I never got to finish the book. But I treasure that moment. Krzyzewski had it right. Dean Smith will live forever.

Sources: ESPN; UNC; USA Today; Washington Post; Youtube

Voter ID Suppression Laws Disenfranchise 50% Of Registered Voters In 2012; POLL TAXES!

Increasing Numbers of Registered Voters Could Lose Right to Vote because of New ID Laws

Generally speaking, election tacticians for both major parties pursue two strategies: make sure your supporters actually go to the polls on Election Day and try to persuade undecided voters to lean your way when they cast their ballots.

But this year, Republicans have aggressively added a new tactic…limiting the number of Democrats who are able to vote.

They have done this by passing state laws requiring voters to present ID, often with photos, on the assumption that voters who are too old or too poor to have photo IDs are more likely to vote Democratic.

For example, new laws requiring voters in Pennsylvania and Mississippi to show ID at polling places could result in thousands not voting in November.

State elections officials in Pennsylvania say more than three quarters of a million registered voters do not have the most common required documentation: a drivers license or ID card from the state Transportation Department.

In Philadelphia alone, more than 186,000 registered voters (18% of the city’s total registration) lack a license or state ID.

Many of these voters could be turned away in November unless they can provide the above forms of identification or a U.S. passport, student ID card, current military identification or ID cards issued to government employees.

The percentage of registered voters statewide at risk of not being allowed to vote is 9.2%, out of 8.2 million people.

The administration of Governor Tom Corbett had previously claimed that only 1% of registered voters did not have the required photo ID.

The new law was adopted by Republican lawmakers and Corbett over the objections of Democrats who argued that the restriction would disenfranchise thousands of voters, especially the poor, elderly and young.

A similar conundrum faces voters in Mississippi, where the voter ID law has a Catch-22 aspect.

Those who need to obtain an ID to qualify to vote must show a certified birth certificate, but for those who don’t have a birth certificate, they need to show an ID to get one.

Besides Pennsylvania and Mississippi, five other states have passed strict photo ID laws…Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Tennessee and Wisconsin, although Wisconsin’s law is being challenged in the courts.

Texas and South Carolina have also passed such laws, but they are being challenged by the federal government.

In Virginia, a law enacted in May requires those who show up without ID to cast a provisional ballot and then present ID within a few days for their ballots to count.



After 50 and 70 Years of Voting, Two 93-Year-Olds Sue to Keep Right to Vote without Photo ID

Viviette Applewhite, 93, of Philadelphia has become the face of a civil liberties lawsuit against the state of Pennsylvania for requiring voters to show identification before voting. The new requirement was signed into law by Republican Governor Tom Corbett on March 14.

The wheelchair-bound Applewhite says she has voted since 1960, but won’t be able to do so this November because of the new legal requirement. She doesn’t possess a driver’s license and is unable to obtain a birth certificate from the state, she says, making it impossible for her to show the requisite ID at the polls.

Another 93-year-old plaintiff, Bea Bookler, first voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. She has the documents needed to obtain a valid photo ID, but state law requires that she present them in person and she is too frail to do so.

Representing Applewhite, Bookler and eight other plaintiffs are the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Color People. They contend the law will disenfranchise tens of thousands of eligible Pennsylvanians who lack ID.

A 2006 survey by the Brennan Center for Justice concluded that about 13 million adult American citizens lack the kind of proof needed to comply with voter ID laws.


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Sources: AllGov, MSNBC, Political Articles, TPM Muckracker, Uptake Video, Young Philly Politics, Youtube, Google Maps

Black Voters Are Not Going Back In 2012! FORWARD! "Ain't Going Let Nobody Turn Me Around" (Videos)

“The Vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by Man for breaking down Injustice and destroying the terrible walls which Imprison men because they are different from other Men.”
Lyndon B. Johnson

"The Ballot Or The Bullet"
Malcolm X

“Bad Politicians are sent to Washington by Good People who don't Vote.”
William Simon











I'M NOT GOING BACK!

"Ain't Going To Let Nobody Turn Me Around"

FORWARD! TOGETHER! MARCH!!

It just isn't Natural for a BLACK American Citizen NOT to Support our Nation's First BLACK Legally Elected President.

It's just NOT Natural!

Despite Differences of Opinions on certain Issues, BLACK Voters should STILL Support Barack Obama's re-election.

Why?

Let's Consider the Alternative: Mitt Romney.

If BLACK Voters Stay home in November or Cast their Ballots for Mitt Romney, the BLACK Race in America WILL most likely be in Worse Shape than ever because Romney has made it No Secret that he plans to send us BACK to SLAVERY
via Extremely Low Wage Jobs,
NO Unions,
NO Fair Hiring Practices & via Right-to-Work laws,
NO Benefits,
NO Health Care,
NO help for Minority-Owned Small Businesses,
NO Regulation for Wall Street & Large Corporations,
NO Affirmative Action,
NO Equal Justice,
NO Voting Rights,
A Stronger Klu Klux Klan Presence,
Fewer BLACK Homeowners,
NO Public School Education,
NO Federal Postal Service,
NO TSA,
More BLACK Soldiers Ordered To The Front Lines in Combat Zones,
More BLACK Men In Prisons,
More BLACK Men in Privatized Prisons,
More Segregation,
NO Civil Rights.

If Mitt Romney is Elected the Heated Racial Divide in America will most likely Widen.

In essence the American BLACK Community will cease to Exist if Mitt Romney is Elected.

How do I know this to be true?

Because Mitt Romney has NOT reached out to BLACK Voters at all and I don't think he intends to do so. EVER!!

We Can't Go Back!

WE ARE NOT GOING BACK!

"Ain't Going To Let Nobody Turn Me Around"

FORWARD!!

HELP RE-ELECT BARACK OBAMA IN 2012!

GET YOUR STATE-APPROVED ID CARDS NOW AND GO TO THE POLLS THIS NOVEMBER EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO CRAWL THERE!

REAL TALK!!!




Battleground 2012: Will black voters put Obama over the top again in North Carolina?

“Swing state” is something North Carolinians have been hearing a lot lately. There’s no avoiding the importance the campaigns of both President Obama and his presumptive challenger Mitt Romney place on the state and its 15 electoral votes. As tightening polls and numerous candidate visits suggest, predicting the November result is not easy.

But for the president to repeat his surprising 2008 win here – by a slim, just over 14,000-vote margin – he will have to target, expand on and get out his strongest base. That would be minority, particularly African American, voters.

What will it take for the president to make North Carolina swing his way in November? Will the Democrats’ decision to hold their national convention in Charlotte, the state’s largest city, affect enthusiasm and turnout? How much does the president’s 2012 success depend on the rise of North Carolina’s minority population? And will the economy trump everything?

“A lot of politics is demographics these days, more than ever,” said David Bositis, senior research associate at the Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Bositis, who studies minority political engagement, pointed to a change that is happening in North Carolina and across the country. He told me that the white working class, a group Obama has had trouble appealing to, “is really shrinking in the country,” while the number of non-white voters is growing.

According to census figures, between 2000 and 2010 the Hispanic population in North Carolina more than doubled (to slightly more than 800,000) and the black population rose almost 20 percent (to two million) out of a total of more than nine and a half million residents. Some are African Americans moving or returning to the South, for economic and cultural reasons, in what has been called a “reverse migration.”

In a record 2008 turnout, African-Americans made up 23 percent of voters here, with 95 percent favoring Obama. In exit polls, an astounding 100 percent of black women in North Carolina reported voting for the president. Obama won just 35 percent of the white vote, but he also did well overall among young and college-educated voters of all races here.

Of the voters who helped the president become the first Democrat to win the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976, “The only way those numbers will improve will be based upon population change,” said Bositis. “It’s going to depend upon the degree to which the Obama campaign decides to put resources into North Carolina,” he said.

He added, “If he does do that, if he does have a very good ground game … they will go out of their way to register as many young people, black people and Hispanic people as they can.”

“The question is ‘how energized is each candidate’s base?’” said LaTonya M. Williams, assistant professor at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte.

Will race matter? While Bositis said, “In Southern states, you would be foolhardy to assume that race doesn’t play any role,” he added that it matters less in a business-oriented, diverse state such as North Carolina. “Obama’s not going to bring up race; his campaign has to focus on the economy. It would be a distraction, and not a welcome distraction.”

The appeal to African-Americans may be subtle, but it’s there. The Obama campaign has opened 16 offices throughout the state, with more expected, and has organized phone banks and voter registration efforts – with a parade of celebrities offering encouragement. At a Charlotte event this year, volunteers were pumped up by Keshia Knight Pulliam, all grown up from The Cosby Show, and former Obama personal aide Reggie Love, who with his Duke basketball background brings his own state ties. Actress Angela Bassett spoke at a North Carolina Women for Obama event in Fayetteville earlier this month.

Going to the source of political and other kinds of conversation was the thinking behind the state campaign’s B&B (that’s barber shop and beauty parlor) program, where patrons can pick up voter registration forms along with a haircut.

“It’s a cornerstone of every community,” said Don Johnson, who hosted an event at his Nu-U Barbershop and Hair Salon in Charlotte on a recent Saturday. “People go there; if they’re not getting services, they take their kids there.” He told me that “when you’re in barber college, they tell you there are three things you don’t talk about – religion, personal stuff and politics. But politics is a major part of the conversation.”

He added, “We’ve been supporting Obama for a while. He’s done a good job for veterans, in health care and looking out for the small businessman, which is good for me. There’s more urgency for the second campaign than the first one.”

The president and first lady have made several stops in North Carolina, with Michelle Obama bringing a “Let’s Move!” event to Charlotte in March, during the 100th anniversary of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA). In May, she gave the commencement address for North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro.

In September, the Obamas will return for the Democratic convention in Charlotte, where the city’s second African American mayor, Anthony Foxx, will host, with advisory assistance from Harvey B. Gantt, architect, community leader and, in the 1980s, the city’s first African American mayor.

“The convention will give them a boost in terms of publicity, assuming everything goes well,” said Bositis. In 2008, Obama built up big early-voting leads in Charlotte’s Mecklenburg County that countered North Carolina election-day results, which he actually lost.

Obama’s support of same-sex marriage, thought by some to cause a rift between the president and conservative black voters, has so far not seemed to affect support for him.

With the support of black voters, a May amendment to the North Carolina constitution defining marriage between one man and one woman as the only domestic legal union passed overwhelmingly. Yet, as Dwayne A. Walker, pastor at Charlotte’s Little Rock AME Zion Church, told me, though he believes “God intends for men to marry women and women to marry men,” he was against the amendment, which he felt had “unintended consequences,” and he is for Obama.

“I’m an avid Democrat, and will be supporting him again,” Walker said.

When it comes to Obama’s chances of 2012 success, what matters most may not be the number of new voters his campaign can sign up or the amount of enthusiasm a September speech in Bank of America stadium can generate, but the unemployment rate. Right now, in North Carolina, it stands at 9.4 percent, above the national 8.2 percent.

“It’s going to be tough,” said Bositis.


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Sources: AP, MSNBC, The Grio, Youtube, Google Maps

Charlotte's Elizabeth Community Wealthy Residents vs Low Income Housing (Another Battle?)

Low income housing hoping to move in to Elizabeth


People who build low income housing want to move into Charlotte's Elizabeth neighborhood.

The proposed development would be right behind a school and next to a park, so neighbors want to make sure the apartments will be a good fit.

Elizabeth is considered one of the Queen City's hidden jewels, and neighbors want to keep it that way.

“It’s pretty much the closest I think you can be to a small town in Charlotte,” said Beth Haenni, the Vice President of the Elizabeth Community Association.

“We have an eclectic neighborhood, smart, and lots of people who are thinking hard about this project and want to know a lot more details about it before we'll blindly support it.”

The new project is low income housing that would be built right near Elizabeth Traditional Elementary School. There’s already a similar complex on North Davidson Street.

“Residents come here, they lease an apartment, they are able to stay as long as they want and we wrap supportive services around them to help them be successful,” said Pam Jefsen with McCreesh Place.

It’s called permanent supportive housing. People at risk for homelessness pay 30 percent of their income to live here and get a one bedroom apartment.

We are very selective about who can come here and live in a community like this one,” Jefsen added.

Jefsen says crime is a non-issue.

NewsChannel 36 checked and found very few calls for service to the facility.





Elizabeth Area Plan Moves Forward


The tree lined streets, the beautiful old homes, the walkability to bars and restaurants. Charlotte's Elizabeth neighborhood is one of just a few of its kind in the Queen City.

There are many stakeholders, from the residents to the nearby hospitals to the colleges to the businesses. Many have the same goal: growth. "We said we need to take a step back and make sure that we've got an overall picture for the community that we wanna push forward in the next 25 years," says Andy Misiaveg, the president of the Historic Elizabeth Neighborhood Foundation.

This week, the Elizabeth Area Plan was adopted by Charlotte city council. It's been in the works for four years. Its focuses include preserving residential areas close to busy streets and promoting the commercial development of Elizabeth Avenue. That's good news for Mike Dawson, co-owner of Crown Station Coffee House. He says, "A lot of things are directed toward Uptown businesses and it's nice to see them take care of the businesses on the outskirts of the Uptown area."

Independence Park is another important part of the Elizabeth Area Plan. Community leaders want to enhance the green space and protect it. Misiaveg says, "We feel like the park is in a pretty precarious position between the Elizabeth Avenue development, the hospital, CPCC, all encroaching right around the park land."

Leaders will try to secure a historic preservation designation for the park to permanently protect it from development.

Elizabeth Community Association President Monte Ritchey says the entire 25 year plan is a model for other Charlotte neighborhoods, as this area tries to grow responsibly but maintain it's unique identity. He says, "We still tend to get nipped away at year after year at the edges, we lose 2, 3, 4 structures a year."

Another priority in the Elizabeth Area Plan is pedestrian improvements along 7th street, especially after the recent deaths of people trying to cross the busy road. For starters, they want to add more cross walks ASAP.


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Sources: Charmeck.org, Fox Charlotte, WCNC, Google Maps

Tracey Cline's Legal Career Hangs In The Balance: Keeping NC BLACKS "In Their Place"

This entire Unfortunate, Legal Situation which Divides North Carolina's WHITE Citizens against BLACK Citizens, is directly related to the Duke LaCrosse Case.

In fact its Institutional Backlash because Tracey Cline was involved with that case. (whether anyone else cares to admit it or not!)

Its also another example of North Carolina's Racist, WHITE Establishment using a BLACK Citizen as a Scapegoat to Keep other BLACK, North Carolina Citizens "In Their Place"!!!

This Legal Situation is also directly related to North Carolina's WHITE Leaders being Angry about passage of the Racial Justice Act because it prevents them from being able to send Thousands of BLACK Men each Year to Death Row or LIFE in North Carolina's Privatized Prisons.

So YES Tracey Cline is the Scapegoat to appease their (North Carolina's WHITE Leaders) Anger!

Please understand I am in NO way Implying that ALL of North Carolina's WHITE Leaders are RACIST because such a Characterization would be an Unfair Generalization.

You know like how many Southern WHITE People Falsely label All BLACK People as being on Food Stamps???

However since North Carolina is demographically located in the Deep South, and since the Klu Klux Klan is Still in full force here, I would be Naive not to read the Writing on the Wall.

Many of North Carolina's WHITE Leaders, including many Democrats, are NOT Pleased with the Very likely Possibility of President Barack Obama being Re-elected.

Democrats?

Yes Democrats because in North Carolina the Democratic Party is Racially Divided.

All of North Carolina's WHITE Democrat Leaders Rule, while All of North Carolina's BLACK Leaders do as they are TOLD & Ordered to DO!

However if Erskine Bowles or Pat McCrory (both WHITE NC Citizens) campaign for NC Governor, I WILL support Erskine Bowles.

If Mr. Bowles declines to run, I WILL support Pat McCrory.

Why?

Because I don't believe either of them are RACIST.

This is why I am now a Registered, Independent Voter.

A Registered, Independent Voter who fully Supports Pres. Barack Obama's Re-election this Fall.

A Registered, Independent Voter who refuses to allow North Carolina's SCARED, BLACK Leaders tell me how to THINK!

As I was saying there are some Racist, WHITE North Carolina Citizens displaying their Anger regarding Pres. Obama's Re-election in ALL kind of ways, including some WHITE Drivers Intentionally hitting Innocent BLACK Citizens (Pedestrians) with their Vehicles. i.e, Hit & Run!

Or Trying to remove from Office a BLACK, Female District Attorney who became "Too Uppity"!

"Uppity" is the Term many Southern WHITE People call BLACK people who are Confident, Intelligent & Aware of their Legal Human Rights.

And why haven't any of North Carolina's BLACK Leaders come to Tracey Cline's Rescue?

They are SCARED!!!

It takes REAL COURAGE to be a Real BLACK Leader in 21st Century North Carolina!

COURAGE!!!!

If they refuse to Comply with North Carolina's WHITE, Racist, Institutionalized Establishment those BLACK Leaders who choose to speak up against the Establishment will:

Be Financially Destroyed,

Have their Professional Careers Destroyed,

Have their Families Destroyed,

End up Missing,

Their Homes or Businesses may be intentionally set on Fire (ARSON),

Either they or their Families could End up DEAD or Seriously Ill via Mysterious Circumstances,

Either they or their Families could End up Declared Mentally Unstable or placed in a Mental Institution.

THIS IS A FACT!!!


Why?

To inflict FEAR into the Hearts of North Carolina's BLACK Citizens so they won't Speak up or buck against North Carolina's RACIST, WHITE Establishment!

But Wait a minute!

Is this the 21st Century?

YES!

Is this North Carolina in the 21st Century?

YES!!!


ATTENTION ALL TOURISTS:

Please Beware!!!

North Carolina is a Beautiful State which still Reeks of the Klan's Ugly, Hateful Presence!

21st Century JIM CROW in the Dirty South!!!

The "Biblebelt" = The Dirty South!


Dear God Let Us Pray.


BARACK THE VOTE IN NOVEMBER!



Interim DA could be appointed during Tracey Cline's Suspension

With Durham County District Attorney Tracey Cline suspended from office, many are wondering who's in charge and what comes next?

So far, Gov. Bev Perdue has yet to appoint an interim D.A. ABC11 was told the D.A.'s office is functioning much like it would when Cline is simply out of the office.

However, by law, Perdue must appoint an interim D.A. in Cline's absence. It's unclear if that will happen before the scheduled removal hearing where Cline will get the chance to defend herself.

Right now, the governor's office will only say it hopes to make an interim appointment as soon as possible. There's a lot of speculation about what will happen, but legal experts caution Cline's future is still uncertain.

"This is historic, in a sense. It's sad we're coming after the Nifong situation into this," said North Carolina Central University Law Professor Irv Joyner. "Durham hasn't healed from that and now Durham is having to deal with this situation which is obviously embarrassing to a lot of people and probably unnecessary."

Cline's removal hearing is set for Monday, Feb. 13.







Duke LaCrosse Case vs Tracey Cline: NC Holds Grudge Against 1st BLACK, Female D.A. (Extreme Racism!)


Why is North Carolina's First BLACK, Female District Attorney (Tracey Cline) being attacked by the regional Legal System she works for?

Is it due to Tracey Cline's ties to the infamous Duke LaCrosse Case and because she dared to help a troubled, BLACK, Young Woman who in fact may have actually been Sexually Assaulted but did NOT have the Money, nor the Political Connections to Accurately & Properly defend herself Legally?

Possibly.

The Alleged Victim/ Accuser Crystal Mangum is now Imprisoned in North Carolina for LIFE, probably being Drugged daily by State Penal Officials so she won't TALK and... is also probably being Raped by Men (Prison Guards) & Female Inmates.

I was NOT at the location in North Carolina several years ago when & where the Alleged Sexual Assault of Crystal Mangum took place.

The ONLY people who REALLY knows what actually occurred that night are Crystal, her Female Friend, the College Students present & more importantly GOD!

For Everyone else its just Mere Speculation & Heresay.

Its also NO Secret that North Carolina's SBI DNA Lab was later discovered to be Extremely Corrupt due to Witness Tampering by Racist SBI Lab Employees.

So we may NEVER know what REALLY happened.

Just because a North Carolina Court cleared those Duke LaCrosse Players, ONLY God knows what REALLY Happened!

Just because NC Attorney General Roy Cooper cleared those Duke LaCrosse Players, ONLY God knows what REALLY Happened!

Just because those Duke LaCrosse Players won a Civil Lawsuit, ONLY God knows what REALLY Happened!

Those Duke LaCrosse Players were Young, WHITE Guys from Very Wealthy East Coast Families.

They had the MONEY to Clear their names.

The Alleged Victim/ Accuser Crystal Mangum did NOT have such Luxury.

Am I implying NOTHING happened that night of the Alleged Incident/ Crime?

NO.

SOMETHING Did Happen but ONLY God & the people involved will EVER know the REAL Truth!

However what is True is that EVERYONE involved with the Duke LaCrosse Case with the exception of the Players, has been Destroyed or is being Destroyed.

Former NC District Attorney Mike Nifong is ruined for LIFE!

Alleged Victim/ Accuser Crystal Mangum is ruined for LIFE!

Now North Carolina's Extremely Biased Leaders (Including Many Very RACIST Democrats) are attempting to ruin Tracey Cline for LIFE as well.

Tracey Cline is being Retaliated against & Victimized by SCARED, BLACK, North Carolina Leaders.

As it relates to Tracey Cline’s situation local BLACK Leaders are secretly complying to the desires & orders of North Carolina’s WHITE, Racist Establishment.

You see if those BLACK Leaders refuse to Comply with NC's WHITE, Racist Establishment, they too will be ruined for LIFE!

This entire situation further proves North Carolina's Institutions (Legal, Education, Finance, Tax Revenue, Medical, etc.,) are still being ruled by the Klu Klux Klan and 21st Century Extreme RACISM!

Another example:

For Decades North Carolina's Social Workers & Physicians Forced BLACK Women & Girls To Suffer Unnecessary Illegal Sterilization.

As a Resolution to that Heinous practice how do North Carolina's Leaders (including Bev Perdue) plan to Remedy this problem?

By Offering the Survivors a measly $50,000!

$50,000 for Racism, Being Used as Medical Guinea Pigs, Humiliation & Physical HELL!

What A Shame!

Whenever BLACK People in North Carolina attempt to Speak out against that State's Historic, EXTREME Racial Injustice those Outspoken BLACK Citizens lose EVERYTHING Materially, they go Missing, end up DEAD, are thrown in Mental Institutions or they are Sentenced to Prison for LIFE on Trumped up Criminal Charges!

Is This The 21st Century? YES!

Is This North Carolina In The 21st Century? YES!

This is why I am Supporting BARACK OBAMA again this FALL!

God Help Us All!

For We Shall All Reap What We Have Sown!

Please Continue to Pray for Me, Pray for God to Expose the TRUTH about North Carolina’s Institutionalized Racism & for God to remove those Leaders who are practicing or allowing Racism to continue in that state.

In Jesus Name. Amen.







Durham DA suspended from duty

A Franklin County Judge decided Friday to suspend Durham County District Attorney Tracey Cline from her duties pending a hearing next month.

Cline's accusations of bias against Durham County Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson put her own performance under scrutiny in recent months and led one defense attorney to push for her ouster.

Defense attorney Kerry Sutton filed an affidavit that alleges Cline has "brought the office of the Durham County District Attorney and the entire Durham County justice system into disrepute."

The filing is the first step required by law to remove Cline from office.

On Friday, Sutton said, “It’s an on-going process, and by the time we get to the end everyone has a chance to make their case.” She and Cline will get that opportunity Feb. 13.

Cline has repeatedly accused Hudson in recent months of bias against her and has asked to have him barred from handling criminal cases in Durham County. Two other Superior Court judges have found Cline's complaints to be groundless.

Hudson, the chief judge in Durham County, handed the complaint over to Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood, who on Friday suspended Cline with pay.

Marcia Morey, a former assistant district attorney in Durham and current District Court Judge, said “It’s a sad day for Durham. The justice system is supposed to be working for the people of this county."

The clash not only puts Cline on the sidelines, it could cause chaos in her office, according to Irv Joyner, a law professor at North Carolina Central University.

"You have a feud or an attack involving the top two elected officials in our court system here, and that does not look good," Joyner said. "It's not good for our profession nor is it good for Durham County."






Prosecutor in Duke Case Is Suspended

Michael B. Nifong, the disbarred district attorney of Durham County, N.C., was served an order at his home yesterday that suspended him from office and was told to turn in his parking pass and office key.

The suspension order, served by the county sheriff, cut short Mr. Nifong’s plans to stay in office four more weeks. On Friday he announced plans to resign, and on Saturday he was disbarred by a state ethics panel. He then told the governor he would resign July 13.

The ethics panel ruled that Mr. Nifong had made inflammatory remarks, withheld DNA evidence and misled a judge in the case of three Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of sexual assault.

The county’s senior judge, Orlando F. Hudson Jr., said Monday night that those findings allowed him to suspend Mr. Nifong immediately, with pay, for willful misconduct and bringing the office into disrepute.

Beth Brewer, a Durham resident who led a campaign opposing Mr. Nifong in the 2006 election and who had filed a petition for removal with Judge Hudson, said she was “flabbergasted” and “appalled” that Mr. Nifong had showed up for work Monday and tried to delay his departure.

Mr. Nifong declined to comment. His wife, Cy Gurney, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Nifong, 56, would have left earlier if Judge Hudson had talked to him. She said he learned about it from a newspaper and was stunned and further humiliated. She said Mr. Nifong had wanted to stay until July 13 to assure an orderly transition.

“I think it’s the end,” Ms. Gurney said. “He understands that and he wants that.”

Gov. Mike Easley will appoint a successor. Also, the state House of Representatives voted unanimously yesterday to allow the governor to remove a disbarred judge or district attorney from office.





Cline takes reins as Durham DA

A longtime NC Prosecutor took the oath of Durham County district attorney Monday, becoming the first black woman to hold the post.

Tracey Cline, a sex crimes prosecutor in the 14th Judicial District for more than a decade, won the district attorney position during the May primary with 46 percent of the vote, beating out three other Democratic challengers.

Because no Republican sought the position, she ran uncontested during November's general election.

Cline replaces David Saacks, whom Gov. Mike Easley appointed to the position in September 2007 to serve out the remainder of former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong's term.

Nifong, who was at Monday's ceremony, resigned two months earlier in July after being disbarred for breaking more than two dozen rules of professional conduct for the way he handled the Duke University lacrosse case.

It centered on three players of the school's highly ranked men's team who were accused of raping an exotic dancer.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper later dismissed the case and declared the three men "innocent victims" of a prosecutor's "tragic rush to judgment."

Cline said Monday that she is ready to take on the challenge of overcoming the scandal, which put the Durham District Attorney's Office under public scrutiny.

Durham County, she said, is ready to move forward and as district attorney, she said she can help do that.

"Being a prosecutor is not about power, it's about doing the right thing," Cline said. "You don't have to be popular to be DA. You have to do the right thing, and that's what people are looking for. And I'm going to do that."

During her campaign, Cline said the Duke lacrosse case was one of thousands the district attorney's office handled and that although it did not define the office, it is a part of the city's history.

"I don't think we can separate ourselves from it," she said in an April interview. "I think we can learn from it and move on."

Among her family, friends and colleagues were Superior Court Judge Jim Hardin, who served for 11 years as district attorney before being appointed to a judgeship in 2005.

Hardin said Cline – his first hire as district attorney – is hardworking and that he is very pleased that she will serve in the position.

North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Patricia Timmons-Goodson, who administered the oath of office, said Cline, as a young public defender in Fayetteville, stood out to her when she served as a District Court judge because of her thoroughness and ability to think on her feet.

Meanwhile Monday, Saacks was also presented with an award from the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys for what director Peg Dorer said was bringing an even keel to the job.


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Sources: ABC News, Fox News, HuffPost, McClatchy Newspapers, NY Times, Wikipedia, Winston-Salem Journal, WRAL, Youtube, Google Maps

Marvin Williams: Mentally Retarded BLACK Inmate On NC's Death Row

Man could escape execution due to NC law


A man convicted of murder in Wayne County more than 20 years ago could get off death row Thursday because of a North Carolina law that says mentally retarded defendants can't be executed.

If a Wayne County Superior Court judge declares Marvin Williams mentally retarded, he would be the 17th death row inmate to escape execution since the law passed in 2001.

Williams killed Theron Price, a World War II veteran and security guard at Dewey Brothers in Goldsboro, where both men worked, during a robbery in 1989. Price died of blunt head trauma.

The legal battle became an emotional one Monday as Price's family sat on one side of the courtroom, hoping for what they see as justice, and Williams' family sat on the other side, hoping that his life will be spared.

Price's family and others are concerned that many judges are rubber-stamping the issue, simply letting people off death row. Attorneys who defend death row inmates say that's not the case.




Williams, 50, sat quietly in the courtroom with his mother behind him as attorneys debated whether he fits the definition of mental retardation.

Defense attorneys acknowledged that mental health experts and advocates prefer to use the term "intellectual disability," rather than "mental retardation." However, that is how North Carolina law words it.

"(Williams) meets both criteria of the statute, that he was mentally retarded at the time of the crime, and therefore, the death sentence that was previously entered should be vacated," said defense attorney Glenn Barfield.

Under North Carolina law, a judge can declare a person mentally retarded if he or she scores 70 or below on an IQ test and shows poor basic life skills before the age of 18.

Those determinations are up to the discretion of judges and what weight they give to IQ tests. Williams has taken multiple tests and has scored above and below 70.

Wayne County District Attorney Branny Vickory argued that Williams knew exactly what he was doing when he repeatedly hit Price over the head, dragged his body into a nearby shed and tried to get into the company's safe with a blow torch.

"It might not have shown (he was) a rocket scientist, but I would contend to you that it didn't necessarily show someone who is mentally retarded, either," Vickory said.

The victim's nephew, Jerry Price, spoke at Monday's hearing and asked the judge not to confuse mental retardation with "cold-hearted meanness and laziness and a total disregard for human life."

"Putting someone to death is a very serious issue. There were laws in place in 1989 when Marvin Williams committed this murder. He violated those laws. A jury of his peers convicted him of his crime," Jerry Price said. "There has never been any doubt that he murdered my uncle. To date, he has shown no remorse whatsoever."

Ken Rose, an attorney with the Death Penalty Litigation Center in Durham, says that inmates were removed from death row in about half of the cases where they claimed mental retardation in the past decade.

None of the 16 people taken off death row under the mental retardation statute have been released from prison. The law also applies to other states, since the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision, after North Carolina's law passed, banning the execution of people with mental retardation.





Judge rejects delays as first hearing opens under N.C.'s Racial Justice Act

Change is coming to North Carolina through a new law that lets death row prisoners challenge their sentences if race was a significant factor at sentencing, a defense attorney said Monday of the first case involving the state's Racial Justice Act.

The hearing involving death row prisoner Marcus Robinson opened Monday afternoon in Cumberland County Superior Court after Judge Greg Weeks handled motions earlier in the day and turned down prosecutors' request for extra time.

They wanted a break of eight weeks to finish a statewide survey of prosecutors about their capital cases because not all district attorneys have responded to their requests for help.

Weeks refused, saying he had continued the case in September and November. "The fault in the incomplete study ... is in the prosecutors who have not complied with your request to do what you asked them to do," the judge said.

"It has been a long time coming, but finally change is coming," defense attorney James Ferguson of Charlotte told the judge, who will decide the case without a jury.

In 2009, the Legislature approved the act, which allows death row prisoners and defendants facing the death penalty to use statistics and other evidence to show racial bias played a significant role in either their sentences or prosecutors' decision to pursue the death penalty.

The law says that the prisoner's sentence is reduced to life in prison without parole if the claim is successful.

This hearing, expected to last about two weeks, addresses Robinson's claim that race was a factor in prosecutors' decisions to reject potential jurors who were black. Robinson also claims that race was a factor in the prosecutors' decisions to seek the death penalty against accused murderers and that the victims' race was a factor in whether juries issued death sentences.

Robinson is black. His victim, 17-year-old Erik Tornblom who was killed in a robbery in 1991, was white. A co-defendant, Roderick Williams, is serving a life sentence.

Ferguson showed a statewide map of North Carolina's prosecutorial districts at he said showed race was significant factor in prosecutors' decisions to use peremptory challenges to eliminate black jurors in almost every district.

Black jurors were at least 1.2 times more likely to be rejected than non-white jurors in counties that had applicable death row cases, he said. The range went to more than 3.1 percent, he said, basing his numbers on a study by researchers at Michigan State University.

The study by two law professors also showed that of almost 160 people on death row at the time of the study, 31 had all-white juries and 38 had only one person of color.

"This case is important because it provides an opportunity for all of us to recognize that race far too often has been a significant factor in jury selection in capital cases," Ferguson said.

One of the researchers, Barbara O'Brien, was the first witness, testifying about the methodology of the study.

During a break, Tornblom's stepmother said it was Robinson who brought race into the case because he said he was looking for a white person to target. "The racial part was on his side," said Patricia Tornblom of Hope Mills.

Tornblom gave Robinson and Williams Jr. a ride from a Fayetteville convenience store. Tornblom was forced to drive to a field where he was shot with a sawed-off shotgun.

Robinson is attending the hearing with restraints after Weeks ruled Monday that he should be unshackled in the courtroom. Members of Robinson's family, including his mother, also were in the courtroom.





NC judge weighs death row inmate Marcus Robinson's racial claims


The first Appeal under North Carolina's Racial Justice Act, which allows death row prisoners a chance to argue that race was a significant factor in their case, went before a judge in Fayetteville Monday.

Marcus Robinson was sentenced to death in Cumberland County for the 1991 murder of Erik Tornblom, but his attorneys say race was a factor in jury selection.

Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks has set up to two weeks aside to hear Robinson's case.

Prosecutors filed a motion Monday to delay the hearing so they could have more time to prepare, but Weeks denied the motion, saying the case will move forward.

Defense attorneys then filed a motion to ban any gruesome crime scene photos from being shown in court.

Death penalty opponents say the prosecutors who won Robinson's conviction in 1994 dismissed qualified black jurors more than three times the rate of white jurors.

Almost all of the 157 inmates on North Carolina's death row have filed appeals under the two-year-old law. Winning an appeal under the law commutes a death sentence to one of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

It was unclear in the fall if Weeks would be allowed to preside over the case after prosecutors attempted to call him as a witness. They said it would help refute the statistics and evidence showing racial bias during jury selection.

Robinson's lawyers believe it was a power play prosecutors used to try and remove Weeks, who is black, from the case.

In November, Superior Court Judge Quentin Sumner ruled that prosecutors failed to show that Weeks was a necessary witness for their case, quashing a subpoena to have him testify.

Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed a bill in December that would have essentially repealed the Racial Justice Act, saying it is essential the legal process isn't tarnished by prejudice.

Perdue signed the Racial Justice Act into law shortly after taking office in 2009. North Carolina and Kentucky are the only states in the country with these types of laws.


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Sources: ABC News, McClatchy Newspapers, Newsobserver, WRAL, Google Maps