Wilmington 10 Prosecutor Sought ‘KKK’ Jury
A case study in how trials were rigged against civil rights activists in the South.
In an extraordinary discovery, the 40-year-old case files of the prosecuting attorney in the two 1972 Wilmington Ten criminal trials not only document how he sought to impanel, according to his own written jury selection notes, mostly White “KKK” juries to guarantee convictions, but also to keep Black men from serving on both juries.
The prosecutor chose, in his own words, “Uncle Tom” types to serve on the jury, it was disclosed. The files of Assistant New Hanover County District Attorney James “Jay” Stroud Jr. also document how he plotted to cause a mistrial in the first June 1972 Wilmington Ten trial because there were 10 Blacks and two Whites on the jury, his star false witness against the Ten was not cooperating, and it looked very unlikely that he could win the case, given the lack of evidence.
History shows that prosecutor Stroud told the presiding judge that he had become “ill,” as that first trial began, and a mistrial was indeed declared. It was during the second trial, 40 years ago this week, that Stroud got a jury more to his liking - this time 10 Whites and two Black domestic workers - and a different judge who was arguably biased against the defense.
The result? In October 1972, the 10 young civil rights activists, led by the Rev. Benjamin Chavis, were falsely convicted of conspiracy charges in connection with racial violence in the small North Carolina port city a year earlier. The nine Black males and one White female were collectively sentenced to 282 years in prison, some of which they all served before the three state’s witnesses recanted their false testimonies in 1977, admitting to being paid by prosecutors.
A federal appeals court, citing prosecutorial misconduct among other findings of fact, overturned all 10 convictions in December 1980. However, in the subsequent 32 years, the state of North Carolina has refused to follow suit, not allowing the Wilmington Ten - four of whom have since deceased - to clear their names.
The explosive “Stroud files,” as they’re being referred to, were discovered several months ago by a Duke University professor who was researching the Wilmington Ten case for a book he was writing.