What does Roy Cooper have to hide?
Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office took action on April 7. The office responded to Kalvin Michael Smith’s motion to the North Carolina Supreme Court seeking an evidentiary hearing. Smith asserts in his petition that former Winston-Salem Police Department police officer Arnita Miles gave a materially false affidavit that the state procured and used against him. Smith wants a hearing to determine whether the state obstructed justice.
What did the attorney general’s office argue in its response? For one, that Smith’s motion is improper because he is not on death row.
The attorney general’s office claims there is no N.C. law that allows a defendant to file motions to vacate or reconsider Motions for Appropriate Relief orders in trial court. The office does acknowledge, however, that the Supreme Court has authority to invoke “its supervisory authority” to change some of the way it operates.
Why won’t the attorney general ask the court to allow the evidentiary hearing in order to get to the truth? Does he have something to hide?
Kalvin Michael Smith, 44, was convicted Smith in 1997 of the 1995 assault of Jill Marker, an assistant manager at the former Silk Plant Forest store on Silas Creek Parkway.
The Silk Plant Forest Truth Committee of Winston-Salem has issued a statement on the opposition to the evidentiary hearing:
“It is deplorable that Attorney General Roy Cooper has once again opted to defend the wrongful conviction of Kalvin Michael Smith. In this latest instance, Cooper filed to oppose a hearing that would expose how prosecutors created and used against Kalvin an affidavit they still do not deny is materially false.
“Relying strictly on legal maneuvers, rather than the truth, Cooper is willfully defying two meticulously documented, independent reviews that concluded there is ‘no credible evidence’ Kalvin was present at the scene of Jill Marker’s brutal beating in 1995.
“Since assuming the case in 2008, Cooper has borne direct responsibility for the continued violation of Smith’s civil rights and lost freedom – and for any other crime committed by Jill’s assailant, who remains unaccounted for.”
Cooper is running for governor of North Carolina. The Smith case will remain alive throughout the campaign unless he changes his actions toward it.
What will a Governor Cooper do to North Carolinians as the leader of the state? Will he follow the lead of the Republicans in the General Assembly and throw away compassion and reason when look-ing at laws that hurt rather than help those who need help? Will he rubber-stamp the actions of the Republicans as the current governor does?
A new attorney general will be chosen in November. The supporters of Kalvin Michael Smith should look at the attorney general race and work to help the person who can help Smith while keeping pressure on a wanna-be governor.
