newsobserver.com projects - Martin, others want break for Black - Comments

Re: Martin, others want break for Black

Kingixolib — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:11:21 -0400

Leave him there to rot for all I care. Who knows, maybe soon he will have some North Carolina friends to keep him company.

We can only hope!

Re: Martin, others want break for Black

NoContest — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:56:47 -0400

Look at who is asking for this break for Jim Black! Jim Black was corrupt to the core and screwed everyone in NC and now he wants a break?! Keep him and his ilk in prison where they belong. If family members have health problems he should have thought about that before committing the crime! What does law enforcement say when bad people are in prison and want out for some “family” reason? The answer is too bad, unless you are well connected like Jim Black. What happens to Jim Black will tell us a lot about the criminal justice system in NC.

Two Choices for Black

PoliticalJunkie — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:47:12 -0400

US Attorney George Holding should give Black two choices:

"Start talking"

"Do the time"

Clemency would be unacceptable and set a really bad precedent considering the plague of corruption infecting the Democrat Party and State Government.

Martin, others want break for Black

bniolet — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:13:29 -0400

Former Republican Gov. Jim Martin plans to be among those asking federal officials to move former Democratic House Speaker Jim Black to a prison closer to home or to commute his sentence.

Black's attorney says about 150 people — including interim N.C. State University Chancellor Jim Woodward and several legislators — already have written on Black's behalf. Black has been locked up since July 2007 in Lewisburg, Pa., the prison that once held union boss Jimmy Hoffa and crime boss John Gotti. Black is scheduled for release in 2012.

Black, 74, was sentenced for accepting thousands of dollars in illegal payments while speaker of the N.C. House.

Friends say not only has he become increasingly infirm, but his wife, Betty, has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — "Lou Gehrig's Disease."

Not everybody wants Black's term cut.

"Jim Black wants our compassion today, but all we ever wanted from him was honest government," says Joe Sinsheimer, a Raleigh consultant whose research helped lead to Black's downfall. (Char-O)