The material below was compiled from about 10 news articles from the Pilot during 2010 – 2011.
See part one Murder of 12-Year-Old Emily Haddock
The trial for Michael Graham Currie is scheduled to begin Feb. 1 in Moore County Superior Court. Currie is one of five black men charged. The others are: Sherrod Nicholas Harrison, who was 19 at the time; Van Roger Smith Jr., who was 16; Perry Ross Schiro, who was 19; and Ryan Jermar White, who was 18. Most were already on probation or had earlier convictions suspended and let loose.
The problem for North Carolina is the so-called civil rights community has brought pressure on the State to curb the severity and in their view disproportionate number of sentences on blacks. There is no evidence they weren’t guilty, quite the contrary. Like Virginia with similar statistics blacks males commit a massive amount of crime, but that’s not the point. It’s racism merely because they are black, guilt be damned.
Defendant Currie’s lawyer Tony Buzzard made the point in January 2010 he was ready to play the race card. To quote one report, “Buzzard also said the issue of the Racial Justice Act must be addressed by the court. The law prohibits seeking or imposing a death sentence on the basis of race.”
The state was seeking the death penalty for Currie and Harrison…while Schiro, White and Smith will not face the death penalty if convicted. Smith is too young to qualify for the death penalty, and prosecutors have said they won’t seek it for White. Deputies have said White was not present when Emily was killed. The state told a Superior Court judge in February 2008 that it would not try Schiro capitally.
