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2 Inmates: Who is more deserving of mercy, Black or Decker?
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Published: June 25, 2009
Poor Jim Black. The disgraced former speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives is now wasting away in a federal prison in Pennsylvania, the result of his own arrogance and conviction on a public-corruption charge.
He would be sitting there far from the headlines serving out the remainder of a sentence scheduled to keep him behind prison walls until 2012 save one thing -- a campaign to either have Black, 74, moved to a prison closer to home, or cut loose altogether under a compassionate early-release program. More than 150 Black supporters -- including former Gov. Jim Martin -- have written to federal officials seeking mercy. According to his lawyers, Black tried to help the government with its investigation of corruption in North Carolina, and thus deserves some consideration. Plus, his health is failing and his wife is suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease.
As sad as that may be -- Black's wife didn't make any of this mess -- there is someone else that the feds ought to consider before Black: Mike Decker, the former state representative from Walkertown whose actual cooperation helped take the speaker down.
Substantial assistance
Just before Decker's sentencing in April 2007, federal prosecutors asked Judge James C. Dever III to cut by half any prison time that Decker might face because the help he provided was the "critical turning point" in making a case against Black. Decker, you probably remember, admitted that in late 2002 and early 2003, he solicited $50,000 to support Black's bid to remain co-speaker of the House.
Black has maintained that the money was not part of any quid pro quo. Yet he agreed to the plea bargain that sent him to federal prison in Lewisburg, Pa., for 63 months. Once a weasel, always a weasel.
"Decker substantially assisted in federal and state investigations and prosecutions of public corruption in regard to the North Carolina House of Representatives," wrote Dennis Duffy and John Stuart Bruce, the assistant U.S. attorneys who did much of the heavy lifting in that case.
That "substantial assistance" court filing still languishes somewhere in a federal building in Raleigh. The only insights that Bruce offered when reached in his office Tuesday was to acknowledge the obvious.
"It has not been ruled on by the court," he said.
The funny thing about the situation is that federal prosecutors rely on cooperation to strengthen their cases and win convictions, so you would think that rewarding that cooperation would be standard, especially if it leads to landing bigger, more corrupt fish.
Surely, potential witnesses in the investigation of former Gov. Mike Easley have noticed that Decker has received nothing.
Owning up to it
While the news was breaking about Black's supporters angling to get a break cut on his behalf, Michelle Wall -- Mike Decker's daughter -- was winding down after taking her three daughters to visit their grandfather at a medium-security prison near the South Carolina-Georgia border last weekend.
She hasn't thought much about any parallels between her father and Black, or the irony that the former speaker has prominent people rallying around him while the man who actually provided some help to the government is asking for none himself.
"My dad, he got in trouble and he's paying the price," Wall said yesterday. "He's told me, ‘I'm sorry for what I did, and I wish I could come home. But this is the punishment they gave me, and this is how it has to be.'"
That's another thing that separates the two men. Decker has repeatedly expressed remorse and shown contrition. Unlike Black, he didn't enter an Alford plea -- accept punishment without actually admitting guilt -- to state bribery charges. After telling investigators what he knew, Decker stood before a judge and said, "I did it."
Say what you will about the acts that landed him in trouble, at least Decker was man enough to own up to it. For that and helping to expose other public corruption, he should have some time shaved off a four-year sentence scheduled to run until February 2011.
At a minimum, Mike Decker should walk out of prison long before Jim Black does.
■ Scott Sexton can be reached at 727-7481 or at ssexton@wsjournal.com.
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