Prompted by a North Carolina GOP mailer that some are comparing to the notorious 1988 Willie Horton TV ad, the NAACP is urging the national chairmen of both political parties to repudiate “fear-mongering tactics based largely on race.”
At issue is a Republican mailer that attacks some North Carolina Democrats for their support of a law that they allege will allow death row inmates to get out of prison.
“Meet your new neighbors. You’re not going to like them very much,” declares wording on the mailer.
NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous, in letters to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, called such tactics “not only wrong, but un-American.”
“For a democratic system of government to be effective, it must have full participation by all of its eligible voters,” said Hilary Shelton, NAACP vice president of advocacy and D.C. bureau chief. “Yet as this election cycle draws to a close, we have seen a sad and disturbing trend where civility takes a back seat to inflammatory rhetoric, unabashed misinformation and outright lies. I hope that political leaders will join us in this call.”
The legislation in question, North Carolina’s 2009 Racial Justice Act, enables courts to prevent executions when there is evidence to establish the influence of racial bias during sentencing. In such cases, appellate courts are allowed to commute death sentences to life imprisonment without parole.
But versions of the GOP mailer circulated in several competitive state House districts depict the law as a vehicle that would allow the release of death row inmates who would then freely roam the streets.
One side of the mailing proclaims: “…death row inmates could leave prison early and move in next door …” and shows photos of two inmates, one white and one black, below. A side caption says of the white man: “Meet Wayne Laws. He brutally murdered two people.” And of the black inmate, it says: “And get to know Henry McCollum. He raped and murdered an 11 year old girl. Both are on death row today.”
Also fueling the controversy is the fact that one of the districts where the flier has been circulated is that of state House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, whose own daughter was murdered 25 years ago.
That variation of the mailer plugs his name into the flier’s main theme, which says: “Thanks to Hugh Holliman, death row inmates could leave prison and move in next door.”
“Get rid of criminal coddler Hugh Holliman,” it urges.
Last week, North Carolina GOP Chief Tom Fetzer apologized to Holliman for the “personal pain” the flier caused him. He said he had not realized that Holliman’s daughter had been murdered.
North Carolina state NAACP president William Barber had written a letter earlier last week urging just such an apology from Fetzer. He wrote: “We’ve been through this before, whether it’s the infamous ‘Willie Horton’ ad or Jesse Helms’ ‘White Hands’ ad” -- a reference to a 1990 ad attacking Democratic Senate nominee Harvey Gantt, an African American, for his support of affirmative action.
“Honest debate is one thing. Deliberate dishonesty is another,” Barber wrote.
Jealous, in his letter to Steele, asked the RNC chair to contact Fetzer “immediately and let him know that his actions are unacceptable.” He further urged that Steele contact the GOP chairmen in other states and “let them know that his actions are not endorsed and will not be tolerated by the Republican National Committee."
There was no immediate comment today from either Steele or Kaine.
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