United Farm Workers president Arturo S. Rodriguez turned to Baldemar Velasquez and seemed somewhat awestruck. “Baldemar, what you all accomplished here, I don’t even understand it yet,” said Rodriguez, who heads the nation’s largest farmworker union. “It is very significant.” Rodriguez, 52, was in Raleigh and Durham last week to join with Velasquez, the founder […]
Patrick O'Neill
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Another Paul Green makes a plea for clemency
Death penalty appellate lawyer Paul M. Green wants to prevent North Carolina from making what might be a grievous mistake–the execution of an innocent man. Green’s client, death row inmate Charles Walker, 39, is scheduled to be executed Friday at 2 a.m. in Raleigh’s Central Prison for the 1992 murder of Elmon Tito Davidson Jr. […]
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Dean Smith had a coach of his own
When retired UNC basketball coach Dean Smith came to Chapel Hill as a UNC assistant in 1959, he joined Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church, one of the Triangle’s most progressive congregations. By coincidence or divine design, Smith attended his first Binkley service on the same Sunday that Binkley’s first pastor–now pastor emeritus–the Rev. Robert […]
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Clemency denied, no explanation
As the hours ticked away last Thursday, Frank Ray Chandler, his family and lawyers tried to remain hopeful that Gov. Mike Easley would grant clemency to the 32-year-old who was facing execution in just a few hours. At Raleigh’s Central Prison, Chandler had his first-ever contact visits with his parents. At 5 p.m., he was […]
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Frank Chandler says he has more to accomplish
The sun has risen and set more than 4,000 times over Raleigh’s Central Prison since Frank Chandler was brought there in shackles and handcuffs on July 20, 1993, to spend the rest of his life on death row. Unless Gov. Mike Easley offers clemency this week, the 32-year-old Michigan native will likely be dead by […]
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‘State-assisted suicide in progress’
In a cool, mechanical delivery at 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 22, Haywood County television reporter Russ Bowen described to reporters at Central Prison the final minutes of Charles Wesley Roache’s life: “At 1:51 a.m. Charles Roache was wheeled on a stretcher into the execution chamber.” Roache, 30, was on death row for killing Mitzi and […]
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Retired ECU prof takes it in the teeth for greenway
Think about the most unusual person you know, then spend some time with retired East Carolina University math professor Carroll Webber. See if you’ve discovered a new No. 1. Webber, 77 and minus two teeth he knocked out this month in a downhill spill outside of Fredericksburg, Va., passed through Durham last week as part […]
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‘Wherever I go, it got to be better than Central Prison’
During the two years Steve Woolford drove to Raleigh’s Central Prison from Silk Hope to visit death row inmate Sammy Perkins, the pair never discussed the reason why Perkins was on death row. It wasn’t until after Perkins’ execution date was set for Aug. 24 that Woolford read that Perkins was sent to death row […]
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God and rich people
If you’re rich, Biblical scholar Ched Myers has some bad news for you. “Here’s the terrible news of the Bible: God is against rich people,” Myers said during a recent lecture at the Christian Faith Baptist Church in Southeast Raleigh to a gathering of about 50 religious activists. Myers used the Gospel account of “the […]
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‘Enjoy some good Mt. Olive pickles tonight’
To those backing a farmworker union in the state, Bill Bryan was public enemy No. 1. Bryan, the CEO of the Mt. Olive Pickle Co., had spent the last five years doing a valiant job fighting off a national consumer boycott of his company’s products by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), a Toledo, Ohio-based […]
