Cooper removes JoCo home invader from death row | Mother of alleged Harnett Co. immolator charged as accessory | Durham Mayor announces "Veganuary" | Report: free speech at UNC-Chapel Hill
No. 105 — Dec. 29, 2024-Jan. 4, 2025
Gov. Cooper takes Johnston County murderer off death row
In one of his last acts in office, Governor Roy Cooper granted clemency to 15 death row convicts including Hasson Jamaal Bacote, who had been on death row since being convicted in 2009 for a home invasion murder in Johnston County.
Bacote was 19 years old when he and a co-conspirator broke into a Selma home to rob the five occupants: when 18-year-old Anthony Surles attempted to flee, Bacote fatally shot him.
Despite his young age at the time, court records show that Bacote had previously had charges filed against him in at least nine prior cases in Wake County and Johnston County.
Bacote, who is Black, had been in the process of challenging his death sentence under the now-repealed Racial Justice Act, which allowed death row convicts to have their sentences commuted to life in prison without parole if they could prove that race was a "significant factor" in the death penalty being sought or imposed.
Although Cooper did not specify which factors were relevant to which convict, he did list the "potential influence of race" in the conviction as a factor in granting 15 out of the 89 petitions for clemency he received from death row inmates, commuting each of their sentences to life without the possibility of parole.
Cooper also issued pardons of forgiveness to Brandon Wallace, 43, convicted of conspiracy to traffic cocaine and marijuana in Lee County in 2007, and John (Jack) Campbell, 63, convicted of selling cocaine in Wake County in 1984, finding that their records since convictions have been ones of "responsible civic behavior and community service."
Mother of alleged Harnett Co. immolator charged with concealing attack
Mother of man charged with setting Harnett County woman on fire also arrested - ABC11
Mother of man accused of burning Harnett County woman charged as accessory - WRAL
Latonya Renee Murchison (44, Sanford) has been charged with accessory after the fact in relation to her son's arrest for setting a woman on fire in Harnett County last month.
A new fact alleged in the arrest warrant is that Murchison was the one to transport the victim, 20-year-old Ashanti Downey, away from the scene of the attack. The warrant also alleges that Murchison attempted to discard Downey's clothing, did not contact police, and was not honest with police once they became aware:
On or about the date of offense shown and in the county named above the defendant unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously did become an accessory after the fact to the felony of Attempted First Degree Murder (Common Law), AWDWIKIS (14-32(A), and AOF (14-33(C)(2) that was committed by Jami Raiziah Griffin against Ashanti Downey on December 16th, 2024 in that the defendant, knowing that Jami Raiziah Griffin had committed that felony, did knowingly assist that person in attempting to escape and in escaping detection, arrest, and punishment by transporting the victim away from the scene of the crime to conceal its location, attempting to cover-up the crime by not contacting law enforcement, not being truthful about the crime once law enforcement was alerted to the crime, and attempting to discard the victims [sic] clothing.
Murchison, like her son, has a criminal history including skipping bond; her bond has been set at $500,000, while her son Jami Raiziah Griffin's bond has been set at $1,000,000.
According to an update on the victim's medical fundraiser, Downey is now able to walk with assistance, though she continues to need more surgery as her recovery progresses.
"Veganuary": Durham Mayor encourages break from (delicious) animal products
Durham Mayor Challenges the Bull City to Go Vegan to Kick Off the New Year - Press Release
Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams has announced a "Veganuary" challenge with Durham Public Schools and community partners, encouraging the city's residents to stick to plant products for the first month of the year for "health" and the "climate."
According to the challenge website, meat is at least partially responsible for a number of society problems from racist cancer and obesity to anthropogenic climate change via livestock "emissions". The website also suggests that a single person adopting a vegan lifestyle can "save" one "non-human animal" per day.
The challenge also encourages Durham citizens to endorse the "Plant Based Treaty," which calls for radical policies such as "no land use change, ecosystem degradation or deforestation for animal agriculture."
North Carolina's hog industry is currently the third largest in the nation, with 8.2 million head in 2024, and an annual revenue of $2-3 billion. However, in 2022, an employee of the Chinese-owned conglomerate Smithfield Foods did release evidence from a Wilson plant showing that ground-up plastic bread bags were being included in pig feed, so make of the health concerns what you will.
Report: 3/4 UNC students self-censor, 11% favor anti-speech violence
How Did UNC Fare in FIRE's Latest Free Speech Rankings? - UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance
2025 College Free Speech Rankings - FIRE
An annual report by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) reveals that students at UNC-Chapel are less comfortable expressing ideas and more likely to self-censor than the average of their peers among the 251 schools included in the report.
According to analysis of the FIRE data by the UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance, UNC ranked 201st in “self-censorship”, with 74% of students self-censoring at least once of twice per month, and nearly a third doing so "a couple of times a week".
The data reflects documented incidents of antifa-style "direct actions" at UNC against speech disfavored by the left, including the recent anti-Israel/pro-Palestine encampments, vandalism, and event disruption:
FIRE’s survey data also reveals a troubling tendency among many UNC students to suppress ideas with which they disagree. For instance, 33 percent of students believe it is “sometimes” or “always” acceptable to shout down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus. Even more concerning is that 33 percent think using violence to stop a campus speech is at least “rarely” acceptable, with 11 percent saying such behavior is “sometimes” or “always” acceptable. This latter figure suggests that as many as 2,200 of UNC’s approximately 20,000 undergraduates view violence as a legitimate response to speech. Given these attitudes, it’s unsurprising that so many students are afraid to speak their minds on campus.
How Did UNC Fare in FIRE's Latest Free Speech Rankings? - UNC AFSA