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NC GOVERNOR ROY COOPER ISSUES PARDONS AND COMMUTES SENTENCE
Governor Cooper commutes sentence and issues pardons of forgiveness - WITN NEWS TV
RALEIGH, N.C. (WITN) - Governor Cooper today commuted one person’s sentence in a North Carolina prison and granted pardons of forgiveness to four others.
According to Cooper’s staff, the commutation and pardons followed an intensive review of cases, including the circumstances of the crimes, length of the sentences, records in prison, and readiness to reenter communities successfully after prison.
FROM INMATE TO AUTHOR, LEGISLATIVE STAFFER GETS PARDON FROM GOV. COOPER: 'UNSPEAKABLE JOY' - ABC 11 TV
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- It's a rare opportunity for a second chance -- getting a pardon from the governor.
Gov. Roy Cooper announced four pardons, including one for Portia Bright Pittman. Pittman has worked at the state legislature for the past eight years and is the author of several children's books about how laws are made. Her accompl
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- It's a rare opportunity for a second chance -- getting a pardon from the governor.
Gov. Roy Cooper announced four pardons, including one for Portia Bright Pittman. Pittman has worked at the state legislature for the past eight years and is the author of several children's books about how laws are made. Her accomplishments are in part what made the governor believe she deserved a pardon.
North Carolina legislative aide, nonprofit founder receives pardon of forgiveness from governor - SUN NEWS
A beneficiary of one of North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s end-of-year criminal pardons, who currently works in state government, said she hopes her life story will help others who also are seeking second chances. Among the four receiving a pardon of forgiveness from Cooper on Wednesday was Portia Bright-Pittman, 38, who had been convicted
A beneficiary of one of North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s end-of-year criminal pardons, who currently works in state government, said she hopes her life story will help others who also are seeking second chances. Among the four receiving a pardon of forgiveness from Cooper on Wednesday was Portia Bright-Pittman, 38, who had been convicted of being an accessory after the fact to armed robbery in Orange County in 2008. “It was just an unspeakable joy,” Bright-Pittman told WTVD-TV about the moment when Cooper’s office called her with the news.
Bright-Pittman advocates for those convicted of crimes as young people. In 2020, she founded NC Reentry Innovators for Success, a Greenville nonprofit that aims to assist ex-offenders return to society and if possible seek to have their official records expunged. Bright-Pittman’s pardon said that since her conviction her record had been one of “responsible civic behavior and community service.”
‘Unspeakable joy’: NC woman receives pardon of forgiveness from governor - CBS 17 & YAHOO NEWS
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – Portia Bright Pittman said she felt “unspeakable joy” when she found out this week Gov. Roy Cooper (D) had issued a pardon of forgiveness for her after she spent years trying to forge a new path for her life.
Today, she works as a legislative assistant in the General Assembly, writes children’s books and helps peo
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – Portia Bright Pittman said she felt “unspeakable joy” when she found out this week Gov. Roy Cooper (D) had issued a pardon of forgiveness for her after she spent years trying to forge a new path for her life.
Today, she works as a legislative assistant in the General Assembly, writes children’s books and helps people who’ve also gone through the criminal justice system as they seek a second chance.
“So now, oh my gosh, to see a different day, the state saying we see your work Portia. We see what you’ve been doing. You’re worthy of being granted this pardon. It’s just unspeakable joy,” she said.
She said she still struggles to talk about what happened back in 2008 and the relationship she was in at the time.
“There were so many red flags. But, someone who’s young and doesn’t know the true meaning of love, you can find it in the wrong places,” she said. “Ignore enough red flags, life is going to let you know.”
NCRIFS IN THE NEWS
NOVEMBER 2021 EXPUNGEMENT CLINIC
GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN TV 7) - Amid labor shortages across the country, including in Eastern Carolina, a nonprofit partnered with other organizations to hold a one-stop shop on Saturday for those with prior convictions to get an expungement and get a job.
NC Reentry Innovators for Success (NC RIFS) held more than 100 appointments on Saturday with legal counsel volunteers from Legal Aide presenting expungements to Pitt County District Attorney Faris Dixon.
“What we really want to do is get people back into the community, working, taking care of their families, paying their taxes just like everybody else, and contributing,” said Dixon.
Often, a past conviction is the one thing preventing a person from getting a job. After they have served their time and proven they are on a better path, they can request the conviction be removed from their record.
“Offering these criminal expungement clinics enables more people to have eligibility to feel like they are part of the community and also to feel like they can contribute after they have some kind of relief,” said NC RIFS executive director Portia Bright Pittman.
An expungement of a former conviction essentially erases the incident from a person’s record. “What that does is allows people you have gotten in trouble before with the criminal justice system, to show that they have had a period of time where they have not gotten trouble again and have become contributors to the community,” said Dixon, “and this allows them to get certain cases dismissed.”
The NC RIFS clinics operate on an appointment only basis, so those seeking their assistance should visit their website for more information on expungement processes.
The organization says that these clinics are helpful not only to their clients, but also to the community as a whole. “People getting clearance of a criminal background and getting some kind of relief, this will enable our community to be able to house more people, to be able to employ more people, and to also we able to make sure that we are taking care of our youth,” said Pittman.
The team is planning more clinics after the holiday season to prepare workers for a job in the new year.
Full story at : Nonprofit helps those with former convictions find jobs (witn.com)
ENC AUTHOR INSPIRES THE COMMUNITY
Join NC Reentry INNOVATORS FOR SUCCESS INC. in Changing Lives
By WITN Web Team and Courtney BuntingPublished: May. 25, 2023 at 12:17 PM EDT|Updated: May. 25, 2023 at 2:17 PM EDT
WINTERVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - An author here in the east is educating children through easy-to-understand literature.
Portia Bright Pittman has experience as a legislative assistant in the North Carolina Senate and House of Representatives.
She says she realized most kids, and even many adults, kn, which takes reade rs on an advent ure to learn how government works.
That’s what inspired her to write There Ought to be a Law, which takes reade rs on an adventure to learn how government works.
Portia will have another book coming out on July 25. My Favorite Future was inspired by her own children and the vision parents have for their little ones.
Bright Books, LLC has pop-up book signings and other ways to engage with her coming up.
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