Governor Cooper forms new North Carolina Juvenile Sentence Review Board

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Governor Roy Cooper has formed a new advisory board with the purpose of reviewing certain sentences for individuals tried and sentenced in adult criminal courts for acts committed as juveniles.

The board, called the North Carolina Juvenile Sentence Review Board, is made up of four people and established by Executive Order 208.

The board will review and make recommendations to the governor regarding clemency and commutation of these sentences.

“Developments in science continue to show fundamental differences between juvenile and adult minds,” said Governor Cooper. “For those who have taken significant steps to reform and rehabilitate themselves, this process can provide a meaningful opportunity for release and a life outside of prison.”

This review will be available to qualifying individuals who have served at least 20 years of their sentence, or at least 15 years in certain instances of consecutive or “stacked” sentences.

The board is a recommendation of the Governor’s Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, which found that the group of people included in this Executive Order are disproportionately Black.

The Governor appointed the following individuals to the North Carolina Juvenile Sentence Review Board:

Marcia Morey of Durham, Representative for House District 30 and former district court judge, and assistant district attorney
Henry McKinley “Mickey” Michaux Jr. of Durham, a civil rights activist and former member of the North Carolina General Assembly
Thomas G. Walker of Charlotte, a partner at Alston & Bird and former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina
Allyson K. Duncan of Raleigh, a former judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and the first African American woman to serve as judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the first African American president of the North Carolina Bar Association and the first African American woman to sit on the Fourth Circuit bench