WWW.TRIANGLE TRIBUNE.COM The Triangle Cooper names Dunston district courtBy Bonitta judge Best [email protected] RALEIGH – Wake County Assistant Attorney General Ashleigh Parker Dun- RIBUNE ston broke the news on her Facebook page last weekend that she had been TTHE TRIANGLE’S CHOICE FOR THE BLACK VOICE appointed as a District Court judge. Governor Roy Cooper’s office made the announcement official Monday. Dunston will serve as judge for the 10th Judicial District in Wake County. She currently represents the DMV as an assistant attorney general at the VOLUME 19 NO. 31 WEEK OF NOVEMBER 12, 2017 $1.00 North Carolina Department of Justice. “Ashleigh Parker Dunston has been a strong advocate for North Carolina families. Her knowledge of the law and commitment to our state will make Joel Hopkins enters her an excellent judge,” Cooper said in a statement. The Hickory native is a Wake Forest University and North Carolina Central his third season at School of Law graduate. Dunston also serves on the 10th Judicial District and Wake County Bar Shaw. Will this be the Association Board of Directors. year for the Bears? She was honored as a “NCCU Alumni 40 Under 40” and given the WCBA Professionalism Award for a commitment to public service. "I give God all of the glory, honor, and praise for this awesome privilege and opportunity to serve the county in this capacity,” Dunston said in a statement. “I promise to be fair and impartial to everyone, and will continue to be committed to the community." Dunston replaces retired Judge Jacqueline Brewer. Lyles earns JENNY WARBURG A judge threw out a finan- cial agreement between historic Hello. Goodbye. Henry McCollum and his attorney after it was found he was wrongfully con- first in victed by the state. CharlotteTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHARLOTTE — A nearly 30- Freed year veteran of local govern- ment was the definitive choice of voters on Tuesday, NC and she will become the first African-American woman to run North Carolina’s largest inmates city. Vi Lyles, Char- lotte’s mayor payBy Stephanie again Carson pro tem, sent N.C. News Service out a Twitter post saying “We RALEIGH – Seven death- are victorious!” row inmates in North Car- With most of olina have been exonerated the city’s 168 in recent years. Lyles precincts report- When many of them are released, they’re often left to ing unofficial returns, Lyles COURTESY PHOTO navigate the legal system had 58 percent of the vote, Friends and supporters held a reception for Creedmoor Mayor Darryl Moss for 18 years of serv- compared to 41 percent for and a society they haven't City Councilman Kenny ice. Moss was awarded the Order of the Long leaf Pine Award, one of the highest honors in the been a part of for years or Smith. state. even decades. Lyles continues a run of Under Moss’s leadership, Creedmoor built a new city hall, celebrated its centennial in 2005, Often in need of legal as- Democratic mayors elected to sistance, they sometimes and was recognized 11 times as “Playful City USA,” which was highlighted by new playgrounds end up with unscrupulous the post after Pat McCrory fin- built at Lake Rogers and at Pecan Hill. He also spearheaded efforts to secure $9.4 million in stim- ished his final term in 2009. attorneys who offer to sue “It’s an incredible honor to ulus funds for the city, a $2.1 million Clean Water Management Trust Fund grant to purchase 142 the parties responsible for be elected Mayor of Charlotte acres for a park, and $1 million from the Federal Highway Trust Fund to expand the city’s sidewalk their wrongful conviction, in such a historical election,” infrastructure in 2010. looking for a large piece of their settlement. Lyles said in a news release. Left to right: Oxford Mayor Jackie Sergent, Moss and Rep. Floyd McKissick. “As I’ve often said throughout Co-director of the Duke my campaign, I can walk Wrongful Convictions Clinic through any part of Charlotte, Jim Coleman explains. and I expect to be a mayor for "Somebody who comes all.” along and offers them Her path to the mayor’s of- money in exchange for an fice included victory over in- agreement in which, if they cumbent Jennifer Roberts in recover, the lawyer will be the Democratic primary in paid out of the recovery, October. they're sort of easy marks “It would mean that I’d have Singer, fiddler Rhiannon Giddens: for that kind of an arrange- the confidence of the over ment," he said. 7,000 employees that work in Recently, Henry McCol- our city,” Lyles said last CrossingBy Martha Waggoner multiple musical divides lum, who spent three decades on North Carolina's Wednesday when asked after THE ASSOCIATED PRESS death row for a wrongful a debate with Smith about RALEIGH — As a singer, song- what a victory would mean. conviction, became the lat- writer and instrumentalist, Rhian- est victim of the practice. “You know, city employees non Giddens crosses musical sometimes get ... bad reputa- A judge threw out a settle- divides. ment that would have al- tions. I think by them seeing Trained as an opera singer, she someone like me that’s willing lowed his lawyers to claim also plays a mean country fiddle. $400,000 of the $1 million to step up and serve, that’s Folk, bluegrass, gospel and Irish bal- going to bring everybody up,” settlement in payments lads are all within her reach, and from investigators in the she said. “The other thing I she’s even won a Grammy with the think about is for the city, the case. black string band Carolina Choco- Additionally, McCollum's mayor needs to be someone late Drops. Now she’s eager to begin that’s optimistic and say we lawyers claimed half of a work on her first musical, about a $750,000 payout from the are going to do things, and white revolt against a part African- that is going to make a differ- state. American government in one North Coleman says McCollum ence because I think people, Carolina city three decades after the if you give them a goal, and also is intellectually dis- Civil War. abled, a condition that you give them a way to get A native of North Carolina, Gid- there, it’s going to be great.” makes him even more vul- dens is the child of a white father nerable after spending 30 In Raleigh, unaffiliated in- and black mother who married cumbent Nancy McFarlane years in prison with little ed- three years after the Supreme Court AP ucation or real-world skill won a fourth term as mayor struck down all bans on interracial of the state’s capital city. With Rhiannon Giddens plans to write a musical on Wilmington massacre. training. marriage in 1967. Today the versa- "In prison, there's no effort all 108 precincts reporting tile 40-year-old performer is win- Tuesday, unofficial returns cendiary moment in the dawning of popular Broadway show written to prepare them for even- ning accolades while casting a fresh the Jim Crow era of segregation. around another historic event. This tual release," he said. "The showed McFarlane has 57 per- spotlight on African-American con- cent of the vote, while Demo- “I think there’s an opportunity to won’t be “Hamilton” she said, be- result is that, when they tributions to early American music. tell a story through this historical cause — a) — she doesn’t write hip- come out, they don't have cratic challenger Charles She even drew from slave narratives Francis has 42 percent. event which politically was very im- hop and — b) — the Wilmington the skills to deal with day-to- for her latest album “Freedom High- portant,” Giddens said in a phone history isn’t as well-known as that day living, and they're often The election was necessi- way.” And for her accomplish- tated after neither candidate interview about the revolt, which of the former U.S. Treasury Secre- desperate financially." ments, she recently picked up a some historians likened to a coup tary Alexander Hamilton, who was Coleman says the judge's captured a majority of the $625,000 “genius grant” from the votes in October’s general d’etat. She recalled a pattern of vio- killed in a duel with Aaron Burr in ruling in McCollum's case is MacArthur Foundation. lence directed against African- 1804. unusual, and often the court election. Francis finished sec- Helped by the award, Giddens ond and called for the runoff. Americans for decades after the war “I think there’s something in be- chooses not to intervene, plans to take time off from touring and slavery’s end. Among those tween that (‘Hamilton’) and some- even in instances where an Elsewhere in North Carolina, to work on a musical about the 1898 City Councilman Steve moments: Colfax, Louisiana, when thing like ‘Oklahoma!’ something arrangement may be unfair overthrow of a so-called fusion gov- about 150 black men were killed by narratively speaking that I want do to the wrongfully convicted. Schewel was elected mayor of ernment of legitimately elected Durham with 59 percent of white Democrats in 1873, and with that piece,” Giddens explained. The Duke Wrongful Con- blacks and white Republicans in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921, when as “I don’t know what it is yet because victions Clinic investigates the vote, compared to 40 per- Wilmington, North Carolina. cent for Fared Ali. Schewel many as 300 may have died. I haven’t made it.” claims of innocence made Though a footnote in many history Whatever she writes about the Historian David Cecelski, who co- by incarcerated felons, succeeds Bill Bell, who de- books, the insurrection by white De- cided not to seek re-election overthrow of 1898, Rhiannon Gid- wrote a book about 1898 Wilming- helps manage their cases mocrats who burned and killed dens is adamant there will be no and gathers documentation.