RALEIGH -- There are plenty of people angry that Faye Brown is about to get out of prison.
Brown, who was convicted of murder for her role in a state trooper's death, is one of 20 felons sentenced to life in the 1970s who are to be released this month because of recent court rulings.
Ron Crawford, president of the N.C. Troopers Association, says Brown should never be free. But Brown, 56, was already out of prison Friday, albeit temporarily. A work-release program sends her to an East Raleigh beauty school five days a week to work as an administrative assistant.
Wanda Short, who owns the school, says it would be a waste for Brown to stay in prison. She says that Brown accepts her role in the death, has served nearly 35 years in prison and is ready to contribute to society.
Reaction across the state to the imminent releases has included anger, outrage and even threats of vigilantism. Officials, including Gov. Beverly Perdue, said they will try to prevent the convicts from coming home.
There's another side: Defense lawyers say the N.C. Court of Appeals was simply enforcing the law, which for a few years in the 1970s defined a "life" sentence as 80 years. The inmates got credit for good behavior or work, and they are entitled to be released, the consequence of a separate law and prison policy.
Brown has told Short that she was high when she rode to a bank robbery in Martin County in 1975, and was in the car when an accomplice shot and killed Trooper Guy Davis.
'Can't get his life back'
Regardless of her role, Crawford said, she was convicted. "Trooper Davis can't get his life back," he said. "I don't see why she should be able to get her life back at this point."
Short said that Brown intends to mentor young inmates after she is released.
"That one day in her life changed the next 35 years of her life," Short said. "I think that she can honor the trooper's life by helping to hopefully prevent it from happening to someone else."
The 20 inmates were convicted of serious felonies, mostly murder and rape. Perdue said she is "appalled" and will try to find a way to keep them locked up.
The lawyer for the Cumberland County man whose case led to the ruling said a governor is not an autocrat.
"Anybody that wants to live in a place where the sovereign or the dictator can decide after 30 years ... 'Well, you need more' ... can move to Somalia. They can move to Myanmar. They can move to North Korea," said Staples Hughes, whose office handled Bobby E. Bowden's appeal.
Her vow: Never let go
That rationale means little to the families of the victims.
Carolyn Ashburn, 72, is still surprised every January when she tears up during her annual trip to Raleigh to argue against the release of James C. Johnson.
Johnson is serving life for shooting Ashburn's father, John Hall, during a robbery of Hall's pawn shop in 1975. Johnson's mother, who witnessed the murder, made Ashburn promise to never let go. Johnson and another man were convicted of the crime.
"My mother wanted me to promise ... if they ever tried to let them go, for me to do everything I could in my power to keep them in there because they were some mean men," she said. "My daddy's dead. My daddy didn't get to see his great-grandchildren, and we miss him."
Branny Vickory, district attorney for Greene, Lenoir and Wayne counties, was notified Thursday that two inmates convicted from his district are to be released.
He said that the files in the case probably no longer exist and that many investigators involved are dead. He said he is coordinating with the Correction Department to locate the woman who at age 9 was raped by Steven C. Wilson to inform her of his release.
"This Wilson guy is trouble," Vickory said. "He is trouble with a capital T. ... These guys have been locked up 30 years plus. The world has changed so much. They've never seen cell phones, personal computers, and there's this whole new world of drugs they haven't tried: crack and meth and things like that. It's going to be hard to adjust to and they don't have a support system, best I can tell. They're just going to walk out."
Brown, the work-release inmate, has a niece in Raleigh and a job waiting at Short's beauty school. She is a licensed cosmetologist and will soon sit for her barber exam. Brown has become a stickler for rules, and Short trusts her to pay the school's bills.
Through Short, Brown declined a request for an interview because of Department of Correction rules.
"I know the real person," Short said. "I see the person that has a compassionate heart for the victim and his family," Short said. "I see a person who committed a crime and has accepted the punishment for what it was. She accepted the fact that this is happening because of something [she] chose to do and she takes and blames nobody for what has happened.
"That does not negate the fact that she wants to be free," Short said.
Equal respect for law
Lawyers said state officials had stoked fear of the inmates.
"What I find disturbing is the governor's reaction that 'We're going to find a way around this,'" said Thomas Maher, executive director of the N.C. Office of Indigent Defense Services. "These inmates were punished because they didn't abide by the law. Well, we should provide equal respect for the law and expect it to be applied fairly to these inmates."
David Rudolf, a Chapel Hill defense lawyer, said fear about releasing inmates who have served 30-year prison sentences is misplaced. "We're not talking about letting loose a bunch of 25-year-olds," he said. "We're talking about letting out, because they served their sentence, people who are in their late 50s and 60s," Rudolf said.
