| Regional Briefs: Ministers Say They'll Call for Keith to Quit (NC) |
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September 11, 2009 Winston-Salem Journal Staff and Wire Report A predominantly black group of ministers will call for District Attorney Tom Keith's resignation today at 10 a.m. in front of the Hall of Justice on Main Street. The Ministers Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity will hold a news conference, said the Rev. Carlton Eversley, the group's president. This comes after a group of mostly white ministers called for Keith to resign over comments he made in an Aug. 26 story in the alternative newspaper Yes! Weekly that the group said were racially charged. The paper said Wednesday that Keith was misquoted. The correct quotation from Keith was: "If you're African-American, you're six, seven or eight times or some figure more likely to have a violent history. I didn't go out there and put a gun in your hand and say, ‘You commit eight crimes, and I'm a white man and I'll commit one.' That's just statistics. That's how it is." The article, however, quoted Keith as saying, "That's just instincts. That's how it is." Eversley said that his group will not only demand that Keith resign but also that the full report from the Silk Plant Forest Citizens Review Committee be released. The panel examined the police investigation of the 1995 beating of Jill Marker, a clerk at the Silk Plant Forest store. Kalvin Michael Smith is serving 23 to 29 years in prison for the beating. He has maintained his innocence. http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/sep/11/ministers-say-theyll-call-for-keith-to-quit/
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