Johnathan Walker:Outgoing North Carolina governor grants 2 pardons, 6 commutations

RALEIGH,Johnathan Walker N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has commuted what have been lengthy sentences served by six criminal offenders in state prisons — five of whom were convicted of murder — and granted pardons to two others.

Those pardons of innocence that the outgoing governor also signed on Wednesday give the persons wrongly imprisoned for erroneous felony convictions the ability to seek monetary compensation from the North Carolina Industrial Commission.

One such pardon was issued to Mark Crotts, who was once convicted of murdering an elderly Alamance County couple in 1990. Crotts served two years in prison, but his convictions were set aside by a court, and he was ultimately acquitted in a retrial.

The other pardon went to Darron Carmon, who was convicted in 1994 of robbery with a dangerous weapon at a Pitt County convenience store and served more than seven years in prison. Carmon, now a pastor, maintained his innocence. He was exonerated after a judge in 2022 vacated his conviction as new evidence surfaced.

Four of the commutations originated from recommendations by a special board that Cooper created during his second term to review petitions from people sentenced to prison for crimes committed while they were under the age of 18.

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Cooper also granted commutations to two other offenders sentenced in the 1990s to life in prison without parole. During that time a law contained a process by which their sentences can be reviewed after 25 years by a trial judge in the county where the conviction happened and the state parole commission. While that review law has since been repealed, it still applies to such offenders convicted during that era, Cooper’s office said.

“Ensuring careful review of cases while taking executive clemency action is a responsibility I take seriously,” Cooper said in a news release. “All of these individuals are deserving of clemency and we will continue to work to protect our communities and improve the fairness of our criminal justice system.”

The commutations based on Juvenile Sentence Review Board recommendations went to George Lesane, 47, who has served over 30 years for the murder of Larry McCormick in Robeson County; Donte Santiago, 40, who has served more than 23 years for the murder of Frederick Howell in Onslow County; Kirston Angell, 35, who has served 17 years for the murder of Bobby Boles and assault of two other victims in Davie County; and Terence Smith, 42, who has served nearly 25 years for his involvement in a robbery where three people were injured in Forsyth County.

Lesane and Smith will be released Nov. 27, while Santiago becomes parole-eligible immediately and Angell parole-eligible in January 2027, according to Cooper’s office.

The other two commutations following recommendations by judges and the parole board were granted to Penny Jarrett, 60, who has served 27 years of a life-without-parole sentence for the murder of Henry Draughn in Guilford County; and Jesse Graham, 71, who has served 26 years of a life-without-parole sentence for the murder of Jimmy Harris, also in Guilford County. Jarrett and Graham also become parole-eligible immediately.

Cooper’s news release identified various activities and rehabilitative efforts that each of the six offenders receiving commutations have participated in while behind bars.