A Fox News report has renewed scrutiny of former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s 2020 appointment of Kerwin Pittman to a state criminal-justice task force, with court records cited by the Washington Free Beacon showing Pittman was convicted in 2007 of plotting a murder and served 14 years in prison.
The 2020 pick and who ran the panel
According to Fox News and the Washington Free Beacon, Cooper formed the Racial Equity in Criminal Justice Task Force by executive order shortly after George Floyd’s death. Headline USA reported that Cooper tapped then–Attorney General Josh Stein—now governor, per Headline USA—to run the group, which included state officials and community organizers, among them Pittman.
What the records and filings show
Citing court records, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Pittman was found guilty in 2007 of conspiring to commit murder and served 14 years in prison. The outlet also said legal filings from a separate murder trial involving Bloods member Michael Contrez Jones described Pittman as holding a leadership role in the gang. In addition, the Free Beacon reported that Pittman was connected to a 2006 drive-by shooting that killed 19-year-old Jamel Amiens Jeffreys.
Pittman’s response
Responding to the renewed attention, Pittman told the Washington Free Beacon: “I was asked to contribute to conversations about criminal justice reform because of both my lived experience and the work I was doing in communities.” He added, “I have never hidden my past. The gang involvement and criminal conduct you reference occurred when I was a teenager and young man at or before the age of 19. I am now 39 years old.” He further said, “I made decisions as a young person that had serious consequences, including spending more than a decade incarcerated.”
Group ties and rhetoric
Headline USA, citing the Free Beacon, reported that around the time the task force was formed, Pittman’s LinkedIn listed him as working for Emancipate NC. The Free Beacon has described Emancipate NC as a group that has repeatedly called for eliminating police departments and reported that a 2023 blog post by the organization stated, “maintaining white supremacy has always been the goal of policing.”
Campaign clash spills in
Headline USA reported that Cooper is running for the U.S. Senate against former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley. Cooper’s campaign used the Free Beacon story to criticize Whatley, telling Fox News Digital: “While Roy spent his career putting rapists and violent criminals behind bars and signing tough-on-crime laws as governor, Michael Whatley spent his appointing a convicted child sex predator who served six years in prison and spent over a decade as a registered sex offender to a top role within the North Carolina Republican Party that gave him access to events with children.”
Fox News Digital reported that neither Pittman nor the Whatley campaign responded to its requests for comment.
