Wrongfully Imprisoned: Advocates Urge Buncombe to Create Exoneration Unit goodmenproject.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from goodmenproject.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Brian Gordon
Asheville Citizen Times
Gov. Roy Cooper has pardoned four men who were wrongfully convicted of murder in Buncombe County, ending a decades-long legal battle surrounding the death of Walter Rodney Bowman.
Though Kenneth Kagonyera, Larry Williams, Damian Mills and Teddy Isbell had already been found innocent in connection to the 2000 shooting of Bowman, a Fairview resident, the pardons now allow each to pursue financial compensation from the state for their wrongful convictions.
Cooper also issued a pardon for Ronnie Long, a Concord resident who was freed in August after serving more than 40 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit. These were the first pardons Cooper had issued in office.
There are a lot of important lessons that Americans should glean from the mostly awful year that will soon and mercifully come to an end – some of them quite sobering.
We must recognize, for instance, that we still have many miles to travel in conquering the nation’s original sin of racism and that the ground on which our democracy rests is not as rock-solid as we long assumed.
And then there’s the painful reminder that mass willful self-deception in which millions of humans are driven by fear and mistaken perceptions of self-interest to believe and repeat demonstrable lies must still be combated at every turn.
Gov. Roy Cooper
Gov. Roy Cooper issued pardons of innocence to five men, Ronnie Long, Teddy Isbell Sr., Kenneth Kagonyera,Damian Mills and Larry Williams Jr., according to a release from his office yesterday. It marks the first time he has used his constitutional power to pardon during his governorship.
Long, whose case has received the most public attention, spent the longest time 44 years incarcerated among the five clemency recipients. He was originally convicted of rape and burglary by Cabarrus County Superior Court in 1976 has already been released from custody but expected the pardon of innocence. The pardon clears his name and makes him eligible to seek compensation under state law.
Gov Cooper pardons 4 Buncombe County men in 2000 murder case my40.tv - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from my40.tv Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.