North Carolina Dem Senate candidate added former Bloods gang member to criminal justice task force: report

Roy Cooper, the former Democrat governor of North Carolina now running for Senate, added an ex-member of the notorious Bloods gang to a "Racial Equity in Criminal Justice" task force in 2020.

In the wake of George Floyd's 2020 death, Cooper created the task force via executive order, The Washington Free Beacon reported.

Cooper, who tapped then state attorney general turned current Gov. Josh Stein to lead the task force, stocked the panel with a mix of state officials and community activists, including Kerwin Pittman, who was convicted in 2007 of conspiracy to commit murder, serving 14 years in prison for the crime, according to records obtained by the Free Beacon.

Pittman was also identified as a "ranking member of the Bloods" by prosecutors during a murder trial for Bloods member Michael Contrez Jones.

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Emancipate NC's Kerwin Pittman speaks with reporters during a news conference, Aug. 3, 2023, outside the Gaston County Courthouse in Gastonia, N.C. (Reuters, File)

Pittman was convicted in connection to the 2006 drive-by-shooting of 19-year-old Jamel Amiens Jeffreys, the Free Beacon reported.

Pittman defended his involvement in the task force and argued his past actions were the result of poor judgment as a teenager.

"I was asked to contribute to conversations about criminal justice reform because of both my lived experience and the work I was doing in communities," Pittman told the Free Beacon. "I have never hidden my past. The gang involvement and criminal conduct you reference occurred when I was a teenager and young man, at or before the age of 19. I am now 39 years old."

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North Carolina Democratic Senate candidate former Gov. Roy Cooper, right, shares a moment with his wife, Kristin Cooper, left, as he speaks at a primary election night watch in Raleigh, N.C. (Matt Ramey/AP Photo, File)

"I made decisions as a young person that had serious consequences, including spending more than a decade incarcerated," he added.

Pittman, according to his LinkedIn profile, worked at the time of the task force's creation for Emancipate NC, an organization which, as the Free Beacon reported, has often called for the abolition of police, writing that "maintaining white supremacy has always been the goal of policing," in a 2023 company blog post.

Cooper, who is running for Senate against former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, referenced his opponent's record when asked to comment on the Free Beacon story.

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North Carolina Democratic Senate candidate former Gov. Roy Cooper speaks at a primary election night watch party March 3 in Raleigh, N.C. (Matt Ramey/AP Photo, File)

"While Roy spent his career putting rapists and violent criminals behind bars and signing tough on crime laws as governor, Michael Whatley spent his appointing a convicted child sex predator who served six years in prison and spent over a decade as a registered sex offender to a top role within the North Carolina Republican Party that gave him access to events with children," the Cooper campaign told Fox News Digital in a statement.

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Pittman and the Whatley campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.