Greensboro's Child » excerpt

[Video] Our Justice System

Andy Coon — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:08:10 +0000

Lewis Pitts explains how the prosecuting attorney selected jurors for the State Trial for the November 3rd, 1979 shootings:

From the News & Record article, Blame for shooting shared, report says:

[...]

The all-white jury in the state criminal trial was caused by a “problematic jury selection process.” Before 1986, defense attorneys and prosecutors could strike a potential juror from the pool based on race.

On Thursday night, former District Attorney Mike Schlosser, who tried the state criminal cases, said he agreed with those findings. Defense attorneys dismissed black jurors, which he said hampered his efforts to convict the Klansmen.

“It would have been much more fair to have a jury that represented the community,” he said.

[...]

Much was made over the years about the jury have zero African-American representation, but no one seemed to care about the prosecuting attorney’s public attitude towards communism and his proclivity to allow obvious anti-Communist citizens to sit on the jury.

These actions are more damning than not having a jury representing a mix of races, as they were prosecuting Klan and Nazi members for killing Communist Worker Party members.

On the flip side of the coin, the Klan members had court appointed attorneys representing them, who just so happened to be the top defense attorneys in Greensboro at that time.

[Video] Sure We Paid, But We’ve Got Nothing To Apoligize For

Andy Coon — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 03:56:11 +0000

After the defendants in the shootings were twice acquitted in state and federal trials, a civil trial found that Klansmen, Nazis and members of the Greensboro Police Department were jointly liable for the wrongful death of one of the five CWP members killed.

Instead of appealing the decision, the city of Greensboro decided to to pick up the civil trial award tab — $395,000 — for all of the defendants.

Jim Melvin, Mayor of Greensboro from 1971 to 1981, provides context behind the decision:

[Video] Greensboro’s Child – The Opening

Andy Coon — Thu, 25 May 2006 15:42:43 +0000

A preview of the first couple of minutes of Greensboro’s Child.

It’s hard to believe that I started this documentary back in ‘97. I was an amateur, in college, holding a mic and pointing a camera at an interviewee, with a light kit set up in no particular order and no clue as to the importance of white balancing.

Well, you live and learn. And have I ever learned some valuable lessons working on this documentary.

Today is the first public screening in Greensboro since it won, “Best Independent Documentary” at the North Carolina Film and Video Festival in 2002. The current version now has a soundtrack and is 15 minutes shorter than the award-winning version.

I have many people to thank for making this opportunity a reality:

My brother, Sean Coon — for his amazing blogging skills and great mind for creating avenues that I can take advantage of…
John Ford — Thanks so much for taking Sean’s design and making this blog functional. We couldn’t have done it without your help.
Jonathan Daniel – Another brilliant web guru giving some of his genius to help make this site a reality.
The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission – For getting my interest back into this subject material and sticking out their chins by taking on this monumental task.
Dale and Lowell at The Scene on South Elm for screening it.
Lastly, Willena and Kwame Cannon — for allowing me to stick my nose into their lives.

I look forward to meeting you tonight at the screening.

Tonight, May 25 7:00 PM & 9:00 PM and tommorow night at 7:00 PM