JIM FERGUSON: DRAMATIC ARTIST AS TRIAL LAWYER

Excerpt:

To the public, Jim Ferguson isn't as well known as his law partner, Julius Chambers, who is president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and one of America’s most prominent civil rights lawyers.

Ferguson is most often remembered, in fact, for two cases he lost--those of the Charlotte 3 and the Wilmington 10, a dozen blacks and one white who were convicted and sentenced to long prison terms during periods of racial unrest in North Carolina. (An appellate court eventually overturned the Wilmington 10 conviction.)

Though the public perception of Ferguson may be vague, his peers know him well: They consider him one of the top trial lawyers in the state.

Gastonia lawyer Jay Stroud, who prosecuted the Wilmington 10, calls him "one of the finest trial lawyers that I’ve ever seen in court."

Don Stephens, who is on the special prosecutions staff of the N.C. attorney general’s office, ranks him "definitely at the top" among North Carolina lawyers who take on controversial cases.

ACTIVISTS BACK KEEPING ALIVE VOTING LAW

Excerpt:

Charlotte attorney Julius Chambers said Wednesday the 1965 Voting Rights Act should be extended because the fight for voting rights and civil rights isn't over.

"In 1981, many people think that we have achieved all that we need to achieve in assuring civil rights throughout the country," Chambers said. "We can't seem to imagine that anyone ever discriminated in the past."

LSNC TO START APPELLATE DEFENDER PROGRAM

Excerpt:

Legal Services of North Carolina, Inc. (LSNC) has announced that it is establishing an Appellate Defender Program to handle the appeals of low-income persons convicted of crimes, according to LSNC Board of President James M. Talley of Charlotte.

"We're very pleased to establish this much-needed program in North Carolina," said Talley.  "And we're also very pleased to announce that one of our state’s most distinguished trial and civil rights lawyers, Adam Stein, of Chapel Hill, has been named executive director of the new program."

2 LAZY B WITNESSES GOT $4,000 EACH

Excerpt:

The two crucial prosecution witnesses in Charlotte's celebrated 1972 Lazy B stable-burning trial were secretly paid at least $4,000 in cash by the federal government in exchange for their testimony in the case and a related federal trial, The Observer has learned.

During the Lazy B trial -- one of Charlotte's most controversial criminal cases in recent years -- one of the witnesses, Theodore Alfred Hood, 26, who admitted participating in the stable burning, denied under oath that he had been paid any money in exchange for his testimony.

CHAVIS TRIAL: DEFENSE GIVES SUMMATION

Excerpt:

Charlotte lawyer James E. Ferguson accused North Carolina law enforcement officials Friday of "emptying out the jails, the mental institutions, and the training schools" to produce fabricated evidence to punish black leader Ben Chavis for his controversial beliefs.

In an impassioned revival-like courtroom summation, Ferguson told stern-faced jurors in the five-week-old trial of Chavis and nine others on burning and conspiracy charges that the trial's outcome would determine "whether, if you happen to be on the unpopular side of an issue, you can be prosecuted because of your beliefs."

Sometimes shouting, sometimes whispering, the bony faced 30-year-old lawyer spoke for nearly three hours. He was interrupted only by a mid-morning recess and his own infrequent pauses to catch his breath a gulp a sip of water.

Chavis, a 24-year-old self-styled minister and civil rights advocate, and eight other young black men are accused of burning a store and conspiring to shoot "emergency personnel" during a week of racial tension in Wilmington last year. A white woman, Mrs. Ann Shepard, is on trial for allegedl being an accessory to the fire.

AN INJUSTICE? LAZY B CASE NEEDS INQUIRY

Excerpt:

In his first year as governor, Jim Holshouser proved to be reluctant to exercise his powers of executive clemency. He has granted fewer pardons and commuted fewer sentences than any governor since 1941. But he has a petition before him that begs for careful attention and study within the next week.

DISRUPTION TRIALS "USEFUL"

A front-page article about the various "school disturbances" that followed efforts to desegregate Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools.

Excerpt:

The Chambers law firm handled the defense for 58 students charged in the incidents and 28-year-old [Charles] Becton was involved with the majority of these.  He often worked against [Assistant Solicitor Irwin] Coffield. . . .

Of the 58 students the Chambers firm defended, all but nine cases have been disposed of in District Court.  Two went to Superior Court on district appeal and seven others were routed there on probable cause findings in preliminary hearings.

MARIE HILL WINS RIGHT TO LIVE

On June 29, 1971, the United States Supreme Court overturned the death sentences of four people on death row who were represented by the firm, including Marie Hill, who was sentenced to die at age 17.

THE HIGH COURT’S DECISION

Excerpt from Editorial about Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board decision:

The Supreme Court's decision in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school case is a clear-cut and unreserved endorsement of the local district court’s determination of what constitutes a unitary school system.  The high court further found that the district court’s plan for achieving such a system here was "reasonable, feasible and workable."

JURY CLEARS BLACK CARTHAGE OFFICER

Excerpt:

An all-white Moore County jury found black rookie policeman John Chambers innocent of murder in the death of a white restaurant owner here September 6.

After the jury's verdict was read, Chambers was given a five-minute head start to get out of the courtroom while spectators at the trial were detained by Judge James II Pou Bailey.

The jury deliberated for nearly six and a half hours before finding Chambers innocent of second degree murder in the death of Gerald Rosser, 29.

Judge Bailey sealed the courtroom before the jurors returned the verdict and, as soon as their decision was announced, he allowed Chambers and his attorneys to leave to some undisclosed place in a state police car.

The judge kept everyone else in the courtroom seated for five minutes after Chambers had left.

As the jurors filed in at 9:45 p.m., Chambers sat between his two attorneys James Lanning and Charles Becton of Charlotte, with his head howed. He showed no emotion as the jury gave its verdict. . . .

Earlier in Friday's session, the defense pleaded for Chambers acquittal, saying that the officer had only been doing his duty when he shot and killed Gerald Rosser, 29, a restaurant owner here.

Chambers said he shot Rosser, after Rosser had grabbed a billy stick and had slapped him and spit in his face.

The 22-year-old rookie officer said he had not meant to kill the victim when the gun discharged.

Early in the development of the case last fall, when Chambers was being escorted from the sheriff’s office to the courtroom upstairs, Chambers was attacked by two members of the Rosser family.