Former Gang Member Appointed To Democratic Senate Candidate’s Task Force While He Was Governor

NC Senate candidate Cooper appointed former gang member to task force when governor: report https://t.co/8ieVAYX9lD

— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) September 6, 2026

Click to expand...

Cooper’s task force included a number of state officials, such as then-attorney general Josh Stein (now the state’s Democratic governor), but it also included community activists who advocated for radical criminal justice reforms. One of these activists was a convicted felon named Kerwin Pittman.

In 2007, Pittman, a former “ranking member of the Bloods,” was convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and sentenced to more than 14 years in prison. He ultimately served 11.5 years with over a year in solitary confinement before being released.

Pittman’s conviction involved the murder of Jamel Amiens Jeffreys, 19, who died in a drive-by shooting in Raleigh in June 2006.

In 2004 and 2006, Pittman had also been arrested on assault and drug possession charges. He was sentenced to probation on both charges, records show.

“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 Washington 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. I made decisions as a young person that had serious consequences, including spending more than a decade incarcerated.”

Click to expand...

Roy Cooper appointed a criminal — who called policing a tool of “white supremacy” — to a task force that pushed to eliminate cash bail and make policing harder.

Cooper cares more for criminals than the safety of North Carolinians. pic.twitter.com/84tCbpJSGS

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 1, 2026

Click to expand...

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.

Click to expand...