More than three decades after their convictions were overturned, members of the Wilmington Ten were pardoned by outgoing North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue.

The Wilmington Ten consisted of nine black students and activists, and one white antipoverty worker, who were convicted and sentenced to a total of 272 years in prison for setting fire to Mike’s Grocery, a white-owned store, and conspiring to shoot police officers and firefighters. The incident occurred during several days of rioting in February 1971 in Wilmington, North Carolina. This happened against the backdrop of heightened racial tensions and white supremacist activity in the aftermath of the city’s high school integration in 1969.

The ten proclaimed their innocence, while human rights groups said the convictions were politically motivated.

In 1980, the guilty verdicts were overturned. By then three key witnesses had recanted their testimony, leading up to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals throwing out the convictions after determining the prosecutor had withheld evidence that might have helped the defense.

But the group was never fully exonerated until Perdue decided to pardon them.

Perdue decided to issue a full “pardon of innocence’ after the state chapter of the NAACP and other advocates presented her with new information that revealed the prosecutor, Assistant New Hanover County District Attorney James “Jay” Stroud Jr., wrote glowingly of white jurors believed to be Ku Klux Klan members while labeling one black juror as an “Uncle Tom type.” Stroud also manipulated a mistrial when the first jury chosen included ten black jurors and only two who were white.

The convictions “were tainted by naked racism and represent an ugly stain on North Carolina’s criminal justice system that cannot be allowed to stand any longer,” Perdue said in a prepared statement after issuing her pardons.

For some members of the Wilmington Ten, the pardons came far too late. Four have died, and several others are in poor health.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Gov. Perdue Issues Pardon of Innocence for Wilmington 10 (Gov. Bev Perdue’s Statement, Office of the Governor of North Carolina)

Full Pardon in ‘Wilmington 10’ Case (by Valerie Bauerlein, Wall Street Journal)

Wilmington Ten (Wikipedia)