Pardon
In May 2012, Benjamin Chavis and six surviving members of the group petitioned North Carolina governor Beverly Perdue for a pardon. The NAACP was supporting the pardon, as well as compensation to be paid to the men and their survivors for their years in jail. On December 22, 2012 The New York Times published an editorial titled, "Pardons for the Wilmington Ten" that urged Governor Perdue to "finally pardon" the group of civil rights activists. Perdue granted a pardon of innocence on December 31, 2012 which qualified each of the ten to state compensation of $50,000 per year of incarceration.
Read more about this topic: Wilmington Ten
Famous quotes containing the word pardon:
“No one has needed favours more than I, and generally, few have been less unwilling to accept them; but in this case, favour to me, would be injustice to the public, and therefore I must beg your pardon for declining it.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“We often pardon those that annoy us, but we cannot pardon those we annoy.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“How much we forgive to those who yield us the rare spectacle of heroic manners! We will pardon them the want of books, or arts, and even of gentler virtues. How tenaciously we remember them!”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)