News Roundup

This week North Carolina was in the national news after Governor Roy Cooper vetoed a bill that would have required sheriffs to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requests.  The bill included a provision that would have made a sheriff’s refusal to cooperate with ICE a basis for removing the sheriff from office.  Several sheriffs around the state, including those in Buncombe, Mecklenburg, and Wake counties, have a policy of not honoring ICE detainer requests.  As this Charlotte Observer report indicates, political controversy over the legislation continues following the veto, with Cooper saying that it uses “fear to divide North Carolinians” and Republican lawmakers saying that Cooper irresponsibly vetoed a common sense bill.  Keep reading for more news. Blackmon Exonerated.  The Charlotte Observer reports that yesterday a three-judge panel exonerated James Blackmon of the 1979 murder of Helena Payton at St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh.  As the Observer report explains, Payton’s death went unsolved until investigators received a tip that a mentally ill patient at Dorothea Dix Hospital had been talking about committing the murder.  Blackmon confessed in a series of interviews during which he wore a Superman cape, claimed to be able to cause earthquakes, and compared himself to Dracula.  Despite his confession, other evidence showed that Blackmon very likely was in New York at the time of the murder.  The proceedings followed an investigation into Blackmon’s conviction by the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission. Asheville Murder.  As WLOS reports, a particularly disturbing incident in Asheville over the [...]