Since 2000, 580 people were convicted of murder or manslaughter while on probation.

The N.C. Division of Community Corrections has allowed vacancies among probation officers to pile up in urban areas with heavy caseloads. They failed to convey to legislators the growing difficulties. And when they did ask for help, the legislature usually said no.

Community Correction head Robert Guy and Correction Secretary Theodis Beck both work for Gov. Mike Easley and have made significant financial contributions to his campaign. Beck held Guy's job for two years under form Gov. Jim Hunt.

Yet for the past decade, problems in the probation system simmered beneath the surface.

The arrests of Demario Atwater and Laurence Alvin Lovette in the killing of Eve Carson, the popular UNC-Chapel Hill student body president, were followed quickly by the news that the two had scant supervision while on probation.

Beck said his department should have paid more attention to the problems. (N&O)

A Durham District Court judge this morning called on Gov. Mike Easley to call a special session of the legislature to combat gang violence.

But a spokesman for House Speaker Joe Hackney says such legislation has already been passed by the House - and could be acted on by the Senate when the legislature returns for its usual session on May 13.

Durham District Court Judge Craig Brown was presiding over a hearing this morning for Laurence Alvin Lovette, a 17-year-old charged with killing a UNC-Chapel Hill student leader and a graduate student at Duke University, when he issued his call to Easley.

"We absolutely, positively need to have anti-gang legislation passed by the General Assembly," Brown said. "I respectfully and sincerely ask the governor to call a special session of the legislature."

Bill Holmes, a spokesman for Hackney, says the House approved the N.C. Street Gang Prevention Act last year. Sherri Johnson, a spokeswoman for Easley, also referred to the pending legislation.

The bill would, among other things, make it a felony to "participate in a pattern of criminal street gang activity," to act as an organizer of gang activity or to encourage or coerce anyone to participate in gang activity.

Read more after the jump.

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