Thousands seek pardon for Greenville man after murder conviction overturned

"I'm not begging for it. I'm not pleading for it. I'm just here to put Mr. Cooper, this whole system and North Carolina on notice that I'm going to keep on talking, keep on doing what I'm doing," Dontae Sharpe told his supporters at the rally.

Sharpe was convicted of murder in the February 1994 shooting death of George Radcliffe in what police called a drug deal gone awry. He was sentenced in 1995 to life in prison.

After numerous appeals and efforts to get a new trial were rejected by various state and federal courts, Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins Jr. threw out the murder conviction in 2019, ruling that evidence in the state's case against Sharpe, including the testimony of a mentally unstable 14-year-old girl, was contradictory and raised doubts about Sharpe's guilt.

Prosecutors then decided not to retry Sharpe, saying they didn't have enough witness or forensic evidence to obtain a conviction.

"We all did what we were supposed to do. We went through the system the way they got the system set up," Sharpe said. "You've got to file all the motions and appeals and go up and down the court system until you get exonerated. And when you get exonerated, you're supposed to be able to get pardoned."

He and civil rights advocates said a pardon would remove barriers to employment and housing he continues to face and would entitle him to compensation from the state.

"The only way the system can show repentance is to pardon him now," said Rev. William Barber, a former state NAACP president.

A spokeswoman for Cooper's office said the state's Office of Clemency is reviewing Sharpe's request. Barber said he wants the governor to meet with the Sharpe family and community leaders to discuss how to strengthen protections for people wrongfully convicted.

Advocates also are pushing for legislation that would make a governor's pardon automatic whenever someone is exonerated.

"We need automatic pardons. When you're exonerated and the system says it's wrong, there ought to be automatic pardon," Barber said. "That's right because, sadly, Dontae is not an anomaly."

"There are still so many people in there," Sharpe said, referring to others in prison for crimes they didn't commit. "I'm going to keep using my voice to fight for those guys."

Cooper has pardoned seven men in the last seven months.

After the rally, Sharpe and his supporters delivered a petition with thousands of signatures to the Governor's Office.

"Mr. Cooper, if you can find it in your heart – man to man, face to face, here today – to pardon me, fine," Sharpe said. "But if not, I'm going to keep on doing what I'm doing, I'm going to keep right on living."