Dem Senate Hopeful Put Convicted Bloods Gang Member on Criminal Justice Panel

North Carolina's Democratic Senate nominee, former Gov. Roy Cooper, gave a convicted Bloods gang member a seat on his hand-picked criminal justice task force -- and then hailed the panel as a "tremendous success" as it pushed recommendations to weaken police, curb cash bail, and decriminalize drugs. The revelation lands weeks before a general election that could determine which party controls the Senate for the rest of President Trump's term.

The Washington Free Beacon obtained court records and internal documents showing Cooper appointed Kerwin Pittman to the Racial Equity in Criminal Justice task force he created by executive order in June 2020, in the chaotic aftermath of George Floyd's death. Prosecutors had identified Pittman as a ranking member of the Bloods street gang during a murder trial, and in 2007 he was convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

A Convicted Gang Member on a Police Reform Panel

Pittman's conviction stemmed from the June 2006 drive-by shooting death of 19-year-old Jamel Amiens Jeffreys in Raleigh. He was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison and served about 11 and a half years, including more than a year in solitary confinement, before his release. Court records also show arrests for assault and drug possession in 2004 and 2006.

Despite that record, Cooper's office placed Pittman alongside state officials and community activists on a panel tasked with reshaping North Carolina's approach to law enforcement. Then-Attorney General Josh Stein, now the state's Democratic governor, was tapped to lead it. Pittman, who defended his role, said he was asked to contribute because of his lived experience and community work.

"I have never hidden my past," Pittman told the Free Beacon. "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."

An Abolitionist Voice at the Table

At the time of his appointment, Pittman was director of policy and program for Emancipate NC, an organization that has openly called for abolishing police departments. The group has argued that "maintaining white supremacy has always been the goal of policing" and that "modern policing must be abolished." Its executive director, Dawn Blagrove, has compared policing to slavery. Pittman is also a veteran of George Soros's Open Society Foundations.

Emancipate NC was one of five organizations that sued Cooper's administration in April 2020 over COVID-19 conditions in state prisons, a case that ultimately secured the early release of some 3,500 inmates. A December 2020 fundraising letter cosigned by Pittman boasted that he was "practicing abolition" by, among other things, "speaking truth to power on the Racial Equity Task Force."

Recommendations Straight From the Defund Playbook

When the task force delivered its recommendations at the end of 2020, the list read like a wish list for the defund-the-police movement: sharply curtail cash bail, send social workers to handle many 911 calls instead of police, favor tickets over arrests, impose mandatory implicit bias training, review death sentences for possible racism, decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, and downgrade the role of school resource officers.

Cooper praised the panel as a "tremendous success" and said he looked forward to implementing its recommendations. Most were blocked or ignored by the Republican-controlled legislature, which holds supermajorities in both chambers. Cooper did sign at least three criminal justice reform bills he said aligned with the task force's work.

The soft-on-crime posture has real consequences, critics say. State Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger has pointed to the task force's "weak on crime policies" after a career criminal freed on cashless bail allegedly murdered Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train a year ago. Berger has since moved to block future governor-created task forces.

A Counterpunch and a Race for Senate Control

Cooper's campaign hit back hard, pointing at his opponent rather than defending the appointment. "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," a Cooper spokesman said.

Whatley, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, defeated Cooper's primary rival field in March and has made public safety a centerpiece of his challenge. Polls in recent months have shown Cooper with a narrow lead -- a July survey put him four points up -- while Republicans insist the race is tightening as November approaches.

Both parties view North Carolina as one of the most important Senate battlegrounds of the 2026 cycle, a seat that could tip the chamber during the remainder of Trump's term. With the Cooper campaign now forced to explain why a convicted gang member shaped the state's criminal justice agenda, expect this story to follow the former governor straight through Election Day. Voters in the Tar Heel State will get to render their verdict on the company he kept.