July 7, 2016

Robert A. Zauzmer, Acting Pardon Attorney

Office of the Pardon Attorney
US Department of Justice
145 N Street N.E.
Room 5E.508
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Pardon Attorney Zauzmer:
We humbly petition the US Pardon Attorney of the Department of Justice on behalf of Mr.
Jorge Cornell to commute Mr. Cornells sentence to time served and to remit the fines he has
paid. Commutation is the last resort with which to correct what many of Greensboros most
prominent and respected citizens believe to be a terrible injustice done to Mr. Cornell.
Jorge Cornell did not move to Greensboro, North Carolina, from New York City, in 2002, to
start a new chapter of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN), but to start a new
chapter of his life. Mr. Cornell, also known as King Jay, wanted a decent job and a more
peaceful, less dangerous urban environment for his family. Currently an inmate at the Federal
Correctional Institution, medium security, in Petersburg, Virginia, Mr. Cornell is in his fifth year
of incarceration. He is serving a twenty-eight year sentence for criminal racketeering. Mr.
Cornell and other persons of color and/or Latino ethnicity in the ALKQN with whom he was
tried in 2012, in the Middle District of North Carolina, were among the most indigent in the
entire city of Greensboro. An anti-racist community organizer and youth leader, Mr. Cornell

simply did not have the financial means for the quality and quantity of legal expertize that is
required in order to successfully defend against a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization
(RICO) indictment.
Mr. Cornells life experiences, the events that transpired in Greensboro and the facts as they
are documented and known move us to petition for commutation. Correspondingly, we are
relying upon your good judgment, your commitment to public service and your pledge of
allegiance to our Nations promise of liberty and justice for all.
This petition is organized into four sections. Firstly, we want to share some biographical
information about Jorge Cornell that is most relevant to the task at hand. Secondly, you will see a
brief overview of previous examples of Greensboro Police Department racism and abuse of the
civil and human rights of social justice activists. Next, we provide a factual account of Mr.
Cornells remarkable experiences in Greensboro, emphasizing in particular his efforts to forge a
peace treaty among street groups, efforts that were encouraged and aided by numerous local
clergy and community members from all walks of life. We describe his harassment by the
Greensboro Police Department (GPD) that repeatedly brought erroneous charges against Mr.
Cornell and other ALKQN members, charges that were subsequently dismissed or did not hold
up in court. Finally, we supply lenses through which Jorge Cornells story may be viewed and
considered. The intent is to suggest frameworks conducive to making a sound judgment about
the most just outcome with respect to the question of commutation.
I.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ON JORGE CORNELL

Jorge Cornell was born to a drug-addicted mother of Puerto Rican ethnicity who eventually
died of AIDS. Mr. Cornell was brought up in a chaotic and dysfunctional household. Much of the
time he was left to take care of his younger siblings. The children had to steal food to feed
themselves. They would run away from social workers to avoid being caught and split up. At
public school, Mr. Cornell was in Special Ed classes while simultaneously being bounced around
to various foster homes. When he was about twelve years old, he was adopted by the Cornell
family, finally affording him a more nurturing family setting relative to his traumatized
beginnings. Jorge Cornell met his wife, Alana, of Dominican Republic descent, when both were
very young. She introduced him to the ALKQN. The organization took the young couple under
its wing. It was family.
A compassionate and caring person, Mr. Cornell eventually gravitated to a minority faction
of the ALKQN. This minority faction within the ALKQN was attempting to redirect the
organization away from the violence and criminality that, sadly, was typical in the Latin Kings
and many other gangs and youth street organizations. Seeking a better and more peaceful life,
Mr. Cornell moved to Greensboro in 2002 where he supported his family for several years as a
truck driver and as a forklift operator.
The Latino population had been growing rapidly in Greensboro and in North Carolina since
the 1990s. Many in the community, immigrants, as well as their supporters and detractors, spoke
out and debated about immigration policy, in particular about the enforcement of Section 287(g)
of the Immigration and Nationality Act.1 As a United States citizen of Puerto Rican descent,
1 See Complaint Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, submitted to the Department
of Justice on October 30, 2010, p. 3.

Jorge Cornell was not personally threatened with deportation. However, as a sensitive human
being, he was affected by the stories he heard from other Latinos about their mistreatment by the
GPD. In 2005 there came a turning point when Mr. Cornell, witnessed GPD officers enter a
local bar immediately following a car accident involving Latinos and falsely charge four
innocent Hispanic men with hit-and-run.2 After this incident Cornell decided to start a chapter of
ALKQN as a way of uplifting the Latino community and giving a voice to Greensboros
voiceless undocumented immigrants.3
From the very beginning of the formation of the North Carolina Almighty Latin King and
Queen Nation, Mr. Cornell demanded good behavior of members and worked to ensure that his
chapter served a different purpose and forbade all types of normally understood gang activity,
including drug use or sale, provoking violence, and stealing.4 Those activities were not
tolerated and members who engaged in them had to leave the organization. Given that many of
the young people attracted to Cornell and the ALKQN had been abused, scarred, and had
criminal histories, Cornell had a daunting task.5 For some of the young people, Mr. Cornell
functioned in loco parentis, a role that harkened back to his own tormented childhood when he
2 See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjDebdOojl0 where Jorge discusses this epiphany.
The video is 26 minutes, from youtube, and is called The Jorge Cornell Story. It has good
information and perspective on Jorge Cornell, his character and family life.

3 Complaint Under Title VI, p. 4.

4 Our Democratic Mission: Transitioning the Greensboro Police Department from Double
Standards and Corruption to Accountability and Professionalism, (Greensboro, NC: Beloved
Community Center, 2013) p.25

was caring for his more vulnerable younger siblings. Mr. Cornell encouraged young Latin Kings
to stay in school and graduate and to find jobs. In addition, Mr. Cornell remained part of the
national organization and sought to change the direction of the national organization to mirror his
more positive chapter of the organization in Greensboro.6
II.

ABUSES OF POLICE POWER IN GREENSBORO

Jorge Cornells treatment at the hands of the GPD was far from the first time that abuse of
police power has been raised in Greensboro. Jorge Cornell is one of a long line of wronged
victims in years of police corruption and lack of accountability. Ultimately, we would like you to
see that as the Inca, a position of leadership within the ALKQN, Mr. Cornell was not a
criminal racketeer but a serious and determined community activist for social justice, as shown
by several support letters by eminent citizens who worked alongside Mr. Cornell in the
community. Please be open to this view as we look over other instances of problematic policing
of minorities, activists and communities in Greensboro.
In 1969, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, students all over the country were
marching, protesting, and sitting in for full rights of citizenship to finally be granted to African
Americans, including equality in education. In this political climate, a black high school student
and social justice activist in Greensboro, Claude Barnes, was elected to be the next President of
the Student Government by an overwhelming majority of students at the predominantly black
5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

Dudley High School but was prohibited from taking his seat. The police treated protesting
adolescents and teenagers with contempt and brutality, causing them to go to nearby North
Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University for help. An uprising endued for several
days at the North Carolina A&T campus, in the course of which a black A&T student, Willie
Grimes, was shot and killed. The urging of the Black community that the police fully investigate
the killing of Willie Grimes went unanswered and the voices of witnesses at the scene who
maintained that Grimes was shot by a police officer were suppressed by the powers-that-be and
the media. The students who were eye witnesses to the attack were never questioned by law
enforcementWho killed Willie Grimes was never officially determined, related Nelson
Johnson, a prominent student leader and organizer at A&T at the time.7 Police failure to
investigate the incident properly allowed racism and lack of accountability to continue within the
GPD, with the result that many residents even today do not trust the police.
In May of 2015, a North Carolina State Historical Marker of the 1979 Greensboro Massacre8
was unveiled ceremoniously after decades of struggle for justice and police accountability in the
shooting deaths of five anti-racist labor organizers of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and
the wounding of ten others at a lawfully permitted anti-Klan rally. While the media and the
courts focused on the shooters, who were Klan and Nazi members, and sought to keep police out

7 Through Survivors Eyes: From the Sixties to the Greensboro Massacre, Sally Avery
Bermanzohn (Nashville:Vanderbilt Univerity Press, 2003), p. 91. After much community
pressure an investigative report was issued by the North Carolina Civil Rights Commission
that found fault with the police and the City of Greensboro but the report was ignored.

8 http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?MarkerId=J-28

of the picture as much as possible by covering up, distorting and confusing the facts, it is now
well documented that the massacre occurred with the cooperation and complicity of the
Greensboro Police Department.9 The police had a paid informant in the KKK, Edward Dawson,
who reported to them on preparations for a violent disruption of the anti-Klan rally. On the very
morning that people were killed and injured, information from the informant was shared with
police in a briefing that detailed the precise movements of a deadly caravan as it headed toward a
confrontation with activists and community members in a black neighborhood. From other
sources as well, the police were informed about the intentions and armed preparations of the
killers. Although an unmarked car with two GPD police officers trailed the caravan on the tragic
morning of November 3, 1979, uniformed police were conspicuously absent from the murder
scene which, aside from being a dereliction of their duty, was highly unusual. After two trials, in
state and federal courts, in which Klan and Nazi members were acquitted, a civil suit brought by
family members of the deceased and injured demonstrators found joint liability for the wrongful
death of one of the demonstrators on the part of a police lieutenant, a police detective, four
Klansmen and two Nazis.10 The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, in
May of 2006, concluded that the single most important element that contributed to the violent
9 See Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Final Report, presented to the
residents of Greensboro, the City, the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Project and other
public bodies on May 25, 2006. Sections II and III of the Final Report contain much
information about what the police did and did not do. http://www.greensborotrc.org/

10 Further details are supplied in Signe Waller, Love and Revolution: A Political Memoir,
Peoples History of the Greensboro Massacre, Its Setting and Aftermath (Lanham:Rowman &
Littlefield, 2002), pp. 462-462. The City of Greensboro awarded the estate of the widow of
the demonstrator in this wrongful death finding $351,500. No other demonstrators received
compensation for loss of injuries.

outcome of the confrontation was the absence of police, and added in a footnote, In fact,
Detective Jerry Cooper and GPD photographer J.T. Matthews were present, but did not make
their presence known and so had no effect on preventing the violence.11 To this day, the police
have not acknowledged any wrongdoing in the events surrounding the Greensboro Massacre.
Had the above examples of police abuse of power and racism been thoroughly addressed, a
police scandal resulting in the resignation of the Greensboro Police Department Chief, David
Wray, in January 2006, might never have occurred. The GPD had been spying on and profiling
its own black officers, fourteen of whom were secretly investigated for alleged misconduct.
Police Chief Wray assembled a black book with 114 photographs of black men while
electronically bugging several cars of black officers. Three years later, 39 black police officers
sued the city of Greensboro for breach of contract and racial discrimination, stating that Police
Chief Wray and Chief Deputy Randall Brady directed other officers to include their pictures in
photo lineups and to pursue unsubstantiated charges against them because of their race.12 The
City of Greensboro spent over two million dollars fighting the suit. Eight years after the scandal
broke, and shortly before the case was to go to trial, the City settled with most of the civil suits
black and Latino officers for half a million dollars.13

11 Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Executive Summary, p. 7.

12 Amanda Lehmert and Jennifer Fernandez, Police officers sue city for discrimination,
Greensboro News & Record, January 10, 2009. http://www.greensboro.com/news/policeofficers-sue-city-for-discrimination/article_7de7a15e-209f-11e3-be5b-001a4bcf6878.html

Thus, even police officers were not exempt from the Departments long-standing racist
policies and double standards. The cases of Police Officers Joseph Pryor, Ahmed J. Blake, and
Robert Reyes, and Captain Charles Cherry are instructive and are discussed in the Beloved
Community Centers 2013 monograph.14 If police officers could fare so poorly within the
prevailing biased police culture then one can imagine how much worse off are civilians of
African, Latino or Asian descent. For example, in September of 2009, an 85 year old African
American woman, Eva Foster, had the bad luck to be shopping in a store that suddenly was
raided by the police for harboring an illegal gambling operation. 15 An innocent bystander, Ms.
Foster was forced to the ground by a white officer and handcuffed with such force that her wrist
was cracked. For years, the GPD ignored the elderly ladys complaints, violated her civil rights,
and refused to investigate in an all-too-familiar pattern. Only her persistence, the filing of a civil
law suit, and grassroots support from an outraged community finally moved the City to make a
$15,000 settlement to Ms. Foster: The police, however, continued to claim that nothing improper
was done.16
13 Robert Lopez, City settles police department black book suits for $500,000,
Greensboro News & Record, September 18, 2013.
http://www.greensboro.com/news/government/city-settles-police-department-black-booksuits-for/article_0ac9b1ee-209a-11e3-aaec-001a4bcf6878.html

14 Our Democratic Mission, Pp. 19-21; 17-19; 14-15; and 27-29 respectively.

15 Op. cit., p. 21.

16 Op. cit., pp. 21-22.

More recently, community-police relations were aggravated when police refused to release
the police body camera tape of a Vietnamese woman, Chieu-di Thi Vo, who was shot to death by
a white police officer in March of 2014.17 Under intense community pressure the video footage
was finally made available with certain restrictions to the public. Many people in the community
who have viewed the tape, including the Vo family, do not think that what they saw aligns with
the police justification for the shooting. The entire matter remains unresolved with likely further
ramifications.
Police misconduct, racism, antagonism toward those who organize to create a better society
and a posture of being infallible and above the law all come into play in the case of Jorge
Cornell. That is our reason for bringing out just a few among countless examples in a letter
requesting commutation of Mr. Cornells sentence: he is a victim of the questionable to
dishonorable police tactics we cite and not a criminal. We gain hope and inspiration from recent
victories that indicate that progress indeed may be made toward having a city and municipal
police force of which we can be proud. In a recent case of two African American men, the
Scales Brothers, who were falsely arrested for impeding traffic in 2014 and then subject to a
biased and inadequate police review process, the men had the charges against them dropped. In
the course of pursuing further redress they received an apology from the city and a settlement of
$50,000.18 The most meaningful aspect of this story is not the money but the grassroots support

17 See Joe Gamin, Deadly shots echo in silence, Greensboro News & Record, June 21,
2015. The News & Record ran a 3-part series on June 21, 22, and 23, 2015, which focuses on
police-involved shootings and community response.

10

from the community, without which the Scales Brothers would have been convicted in court on
false charges.19
III.

MR. CORNELLS GREENSBORO EXPERIENCE

Harassment of Jorge Cornell and the ALKQN by the GPD began even before a gang unit
formed in 2007. Once the Gang Unit was established, Mr. Cornell and the ALKQN became the
primary focus of a systematic and unrelenting harassment campaign for over three years. Two
concurrent dynamics, the creation and operation of the federally funded GPD Gang Enforcement
Unit dedicated to suppressing gangs and the publically-announced pursuit of a peace treaty
among the Citys street organizations, propelled events forward. The Peace Treaty, originated by
Mr. Cornell and his North Carolina chapter of the ALKQN, was intended to promote community
service and social justice. Its proclamation was indeed a pivotal moment in the fortunes of Mr.
Cornell.20

18 Sarah Newell Williamson, Scales brothers receive settlement, plus apology, Greensboro
News & Record, May 3, 2016. The Scales Brothers lawyer, Graham Holt, said public support
was key in the positive resolution the brothers reached with the city. The community got
behind them. Thats a victory. http://www.greensboro.com/news/local_news/scales-brothersget-apology-no-admission-of-fault-from-city/article_1c54dca0-7427-5d8e-842621418cb84118.html

19 Ibid.

20 See A Beginning: Towards Peace Among Us (Gangs), Agreement Reached Wednesday,

July 23, 2008, Greensboro, NC

11

Gangs, or as one may prefer to call them, youth street organizations, are identified in the
publics mind with violence and criminal behavior, and it is undeniable that there is plenty of
evidence to support this view. However, we often talk about the exception that proves the rule,
the atypical. Jorge Cornell and the Latin Kings in Greensboro, North Carolina, were atypical.
They were, however, from the beginning treated like criminals by the GPD.
On December 1, 2007, one month after the gang units formation, ALKQN leader Jorge
Cornell had parked in his friends driveway and was walking toward her house to pick
her up for a party when about thirty GPD cars pulled up and officers walked toward
Cornells car with guns drawn, ordering him back in his vehicle. Cornell obeyed the
order, returning to his car and sitting with his hands on the dashboard. The officers then
ordered Cornell out of the car and told him to get down on his knees and put his hands on
his head. They next had Cornell lay down on the ground and as he lay prostrate Officer
Finch twisted his arm behind his back and handcuffed himOfficer Finch rammed
Cornells face into the ground. When Cornell moved his neck in an attempt to protect his
face, several officers began beating him. One officer hit Cornell in the head with a
flashlight. The officers later charged Cornell with assault, claiming that Cornell had
somehow attacked them from his handcuffed position on the groundCornell was
acquitted of this charge in December of 2008.21
Following this incident, Mr. Cornell tried to enter the Melvin Municipal Office Building in
Greensboro to file a complaint with the Complaint Review Committee but his access was
blocked by an Internal Affairs employee who told him he had no right to enter because he was a
gang member.22
On February 8, 2008, Gang Unit officers, using a warrant under Mr. Cornells name, kicked
down the door at the residence of former Latin King, Anthony Vasquez. They searched the house
and found half an ounce of marijuana on a separate person in the house, and they charged
21 Complaint Under Title VIpp. 6-7.

22 Op. cit., p. 7.

12

Vasquez with possession and intent to sell and distribute. A few days later, the Gang Unit
arrested Mr. Cornell and charged him with maintaining a dwelling because they found his name
on the water bill at the Vasquez residence.23 The felony charges against both Vasquez and Cornell
were later dismissed.
Also in February of 2008, Mr. Cornell and his biological brother Russell Kilfoil (also known
as King Peaceful) were charged with ten counts of conspiracy to embezzle. Subsequently, the
District Attorney, citing lack of evidence, dropped all charges against both men.24 Former Gang
Unit officer, A.J. Blake, a black officer of Honduran descent, later told the press that the gang
unit was instructed to charge the Latin Kings with any possible violations that we could.25
Officer Blake fell out of favor with the GPD after he approached Sergeant Sizemore, who served
under the Gang Units commander Captain Wolfe, and complained of discrimination against
Latinos. Officer Blake told Sergeant Sizemore of his concern that the Gang Unit was focusing
exclusively on the ALKQN while other gangs were actively shooting at each other and
suggested that the Gang Unit needed to break that up before someone got killed. Despite the

23 Ibid.

24 Ibid. Defense Attorney Georgia Nixon reported that the D.A told her Based on what the
officer turned in we had to dismiss this. Cited in Jordan Green, Jorge Cornell Called for
Gang PeaceSo Why Does He Look Like a Marked Man?, YES! Weekly, November 19, 2008.
http://yesweekly.com/article-5209-jorge-cornell-called-for-gang-peace.html

25 Quoted in Jordan Green, Suspended Gang Unit Officer Corroborates Abuse Allegations,
YES! Weekly, June 10-16, 2009, p. 8. http://yesweekly.com/print-article-6428-print.html

13

violence ongoing and emanating from other gangs, Sizemore still wanted to focus on Mr.
Cornell and the Latin Kings.26
In as much as the Gang Unit kept Jorge Cornell and his organization as their main target, they
depleted the meager financial resources of impoverished young people by compelling them to
make bail and pay attorneys. Repressive police action caused these youths to lose jobs or
ensured their failure even to obtain jobs. Young ALKQN members lived in fear of when the next
police encounter would come, and what might happen as a result of it. Numerous unwarranted
arrests on baseless charges were followed by dismissals and acquittals. To illustrate the
systematic discrimination and harassment that Mr. Cornell and his ALKQN chapter faced,
consider that North Carolina had at the time approximately a 68% conviction rate for felonies
charged while the conviction rate for Greensboro ALKQN members charged with felonies was
only 11%.27 By Spring of 2009, Mr. Cornell alone had been charged with more than fourteen
felonies in an eighteen month period, every single one of which was either thrown out of court or
defeated in court.28
In late June of 2008, as police provocation and harassment continued, Jorge Cornell sought
spiritual guidance from Reverend Nelson Johnson, Executive Director of the Beloved
26 Ibid.

27 Our Democratic Mission, p. 25.

28 An Urgent Plea to Greensboro to Help Save Lives, Rev. Nelson Johnson, November
2009.

14

Community Center of Greensboro and Co-Pastor of Faith Community Church. Mr. Cornell had
heard that the GPD was looking for him to serve him an arrest warrant. Mr. Cornell and Rev.
Johnson then prayed together. Rev. Johnson carefully sized up his new acquaintance as Mr.
Cornell shared his vision of a Peace Treaty that would bring street organizations together in the
service of the community. It was well after midnight on June 27, 2008, when Rev. Johnson
accompanied Mr. Cornell to the Magistrates Office to obtain the warrant that Jorge had heard
about. To their surprise there was no warrant to be found in the GPDs or Sheriffs databases.29
A few days later, however, there was a warrant that charged Mr. Cornell with allowing a minor
without a license to drive his car, a misdemeanor charge that was later dismissed.
It was around this time that Jorge Cornell announced to the community his plan to forge a
peace treaty among street groups and sought out clergy to stem the tide of street violence in
Greensboro.30 In the weeks that followed, a half dozen street organizations engaged in a
genuine and hopeful peace process. Due to Mr. Cornells efforts, representatives from several
street organizations met together, prayed together, sang together, and showed their solidarity
before many community witnesses.
On July 23, 2008, with support from the Pulpit Forum and the Nation of Islam, a Peace
Treaty was concluded by five street organizations: the ALKQN, the Almighty Black Peace Stone
29 About a month later, in late July 2008, a letter was hand delivered to Rev. Johnson by
GPD Chief Bellamy that was written by Captain Wolfe in which the latter said he did not
know why the warrant was not in the computer database and then seemed to blame Mr.
Cornell for assuming that the warrant did not exist since it was not in the database and for
not going forth in search of the warrant so that he could be served!

30 Our Democratic Mission, p. 25.

15

Nation, the Crips, the Five Percenters and the Piru Bloods. The five organizations urged other
gangs and the community at large to lay down violence and join us in working together for
peace among us and within our community.31
Unfortunately, instead of law enforcement encouraging this promising initiative by poor and
marginalized youth, or at least remaining neutral, in the weeks after the Peace Treaty
announcement, the ALKQN experienced almost daily harassment by the GPDs Gang Unit. In a
private meeting between four Pulpit Forum clergy and former Police Chief Timothy Bellamy, the
ministers expressed their concern that the provocative behavior of the Gang Unit toward the
ALKQN was creating a dangerous situation. The ministers asked Chief Bellamy outright whether
Mr. Cornells ALKQN chapter was a violent organization. The Chief replied that the ALKQN
was not known to be violent in Greensboro.32 When pressed further about why the ALKQN were
being pursued by the police, Chief Bellamy told the clergymen that it was because they are
organized.33
(It is worth noting here that Mr. Cornells ALKQN appeared to have been targeted due to his
community organizing efforts rather than criminal activity, which the organization neither
promoted nor tolerated. We note also that this peculiar logic of punishing organizing and
31 Eric Ginsberg, Greensboro Gangs Unite to Build Peace, The Guilfordian, September 19,
2008. The agreement is entitled, Towards Peace Among Us (Gangs).

32 Our Democratic Mission, p. 25.

33 As reported by Rev. Nelson Johnson, one of the four clergy present in a private meeting
with Police Chief Bellamy.

16

ignoring police harassment carried over to the RICO trial where the Prosecution and the Court
successfully denied Mr. Cornell a defense of police harassment and ruled out evidence of his
community organizing.)
Most disturbing is what happened next. On August 10, 2008, Mr. Cornell was shot and
critically wounded in what appeared to be an assassination attempt just a few weeks after his
public call for peace among street organizations.34
On receiving the news that Mr. Cornell had been shot, Rev. Johnson went to Wesley Long
Hospital in Greensboro where Mr. Cornell underwent surgery. Both men discussed the need to
prevent any escalation of violence. Rev. Johnson wrote, at the time of his conversation with Mr.
Cornell, I asked could I say on his behalf that he is asking all who love him and respect him not
to retaliate and that the peace process was still in place and would continue. He agreed and
added that I should tell the public that whoever shot him is forgiven.35

34 Complaint Under Title VI, p. 18. The Title VI Complaint, and several other published
sources have put the date of the shooting as October 11, 2008, but this is incorrect: the
wrong date was probably copied from a source that stated it erroneously and not checked.
Verifying the correct date of August 10th is Rev. Nelson Johnson who visited Mr. Cornell at
Wesley Long Hospital at approximately 10:00 PM on Sunday August 10th, the date on which
he was shot. It is also verified by Mr. Cornell himself and quoted in the November 19, 2008
issue of Yes! Weekly, Jorge Cornell Called for Gang PeaceSo Why Does He Looked Like a
Marked Man?, p. 13, in which he indicates he was shot on Sunday, which would be August
10, 2008 and not August 11, 2008.

35 Outline for Discussion of Sequence of Events Related to the Almighty Latin King and
Queen Nation, Nelson Johnson, August 16, 2008.

17

The police speculated to the media that the shooting and wounding of the ALKQNs leader
was due to gang hostilities. But no gang conflict involving Mr. Cornells ALKQN ever
occurred after the attempted assassination.
To the contrary, Mr. Cornell persisted in his commitment to seek peace on many occasions.
He began to take a more active role in public life to benefit youth, poor people and marginalized
minorities. Jorge Cornell participated in a Black and Brown Unity Conference in October 2008.
He was appointed to and served on the Guilford County School Safety Committee in 2009. Mr.
Cornell ran twice for a Greensboro City Council seat, in 2009 for an at-large seat and in 2011, as
a District 5 representative.36 All the while he continued his efforts to rid the community of
violence and to help those who were afflicted by its consequences. Mr. Cornell always spoke out
against racism and discrimination. He comforted and aided those who were victimized by
senseless violence, as illustrated by the following incident at a public housing project.
In a public statement on August 12, 2009, a year after he was shot and wounded, Mr. Cornell
told of a recent visit that he and the ALKQN had
with a grieving mother in the Hickory Trails Public Housing Community. We have
helped raise money and got a church for her to hold the funeral for her sixteen-year-old
son, who was killed by senseless violence. Even before her son was buried, however, the
Housing Authority said that it will put this mother out of her home. I will be working
with others to help keep her in her home in the weeks to come. This is the kind of
36 City Council Candidates Curfew Lifted, Greensboro News and Record, August
5, 2009. http://www.greensboro.com/news/city-council-candidate-s-curfewlifted/article_860a207a-99ce-5110-8261-e6ed322306f7.html ; Amanda Lehmert,
Latin King Gang Leader Seeking Council Seat, Greensboro News and Record, July
16, 2009. http://www.greensboro.com/news/political/latin-king-gang-leader-seekingcity-council-seat/article_254d6afd-c34f-598f-af86-67a7a92880e0.html

18

violence I think we can prevent if we and other peace-seeking street groups could work
freely in the community.37
With each positive achievement, the GPDs Gang Unit hardened its position and singled out
Mr. Cornell and his organization for harassment. The Gang Unit disrupted their peaceful
participation in events in downtown Greensboro. One such disruption occurred on November 1,
2008, at Center City Park, when officers of the Gang Unit rushed a group of African-American,
Latino, and White youth who were involved in a friendly game of tag football.38 The Gang
Units actions disrupted families with small children and elders who were enjoying themselves in
the park on a beautiful, sunny day: there even appeared to be a Quinceaeras (a Latino debutante
ceremony) underway. Twenty minutes after the Gang Unit stormed in, the park was virtually
empty.39 The Gang Unit arrested Mr. Cornell and three other men and charged them with
abducting a 15-year-old girl. The felony charges associated with the alleged kidnapping were
later dropped. In fact, no abduction or kidnapping ever took place.
In the meantime, the local newspaper hastily ran with the police story, sensationalized it, and
once again portrayed Mr. Cornell and his friends as criminals.40 In response to the major local
medias slanted coverage, Reverend Gregory Headen, President of the Pulpit Forum, and Rev.
37 Public Statement by Jorge Cornell: I Will Continue to Work for Peace and Unity, August
12, 2009. This statement was delivered at a joint press conference with former Gang Unit
Officer, A.J. Blake on August 12, 2009. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=mRXJPm6wO8o

38 See, Behavior of Greensboros Gang Squad Puts Young People and Community Members
in Danger, Press release by the Pulpit Forum of Clergy and the Beloved Community Center
of Greensboro, November 6, 2008.

39 Ibid.

19

Johnson, also of the Pulpit Forum, publically denounced the charges,41 as did local alternative
community newspaper journalist Jordan Green.42
Of all of the many charges, both felony and misdemeanor, thrown at him by the GPD, Mr.
Cornell was convicted only once of a misdemeanor: He was charged with obstructing and
delaying a law enforcement officer.43 The occasion for this charge was a free concert, sponsored
by a local restaurant, which brought hundreds of people into downtown Greensboro on Saturday,
August 1, 2009.
The GPD claimed that ALKQN members were throwing gang signs--an accusation the
latter adamantly denied. Police also said that a rival gang, the Bloods, had been sighted nearby
an observation made by no one outside the GPD. What really happened was that Mr. Cornell had
filed with the Board of Elections to be a Greensboro City Council candidate and was
campaigning. It was a good opportunity for the distribution of campaign literature and also for
40 Sonja Elmquist, Four Men Face Charges in Abduction of Girl, 15, Greensboro News and
Record, November 3, 2008 http://www.greensboro.com/news/public_safety/four-men-facecharges-in-abduction-of-girl/article_75a25b06-8150-5347-a4d3-a4703a929277.html

41 Behavior of Greensboros Gang Squad Pulpit Forum of Clergy and the Beloved
Community Center of Greensboro, November 6, 2008.

42 Jordan Green, Jorge Cornell Called for Gang PeaceSo Why Does He Look a Marked
Man, Yes Weekly!, November 19, 2008, p. 23.

43 Gerald Whitt, Candidates Arrest Leaves Facts Unclear, Greensboro News and Record,
August 3, 2009.

http://www.greensboro.com/news/public_safety/candidate-s-arrest-leaves-factsunclear/article_78cf0fbb-290a-52a5-a00b-c9ba05fd346e.html
20

young people to have some wholesome entertainment. Mr. Cornell was downtown with his
campaign manager, Eric Ginsburg, a Guilford College student. They were at the free concert in
the street when, a little later, Wesley Williams and several other ALKQN members arrived with
Mr. Cornells daughters. From a distance, Mr. Ginsburg waved to the newly arrived ALKQN
members and they waved back.44 No gang signal had in fact been sent.
Mr. Cornell had temporary custody of Wesley Williams at that time. When he spotted
police officers surrounding the young ALKQN member he walked over to Mr. Williams to see
what was happening. A YouTube video has captured a few minutes of what transpired. Mr.
Cornell stood in front of Wesley Williams and Gang Unit Officer Roman Watkins aggressively
approached Mr. Cornell. As Officer Watkins made the arrest, Mr. Cornells two young daughters
became hysterical. The younger one sobbed and cried out, Why are you always arresting my
father?45
As part of the bond for this arrest, Mr. Cornell was put on a curfew at the height of his
campaigning for a City Council seat. He was forbidden to be out-of-doors after six oclock in
the evening, a time when he did much of his campaigning. The community responded swiftly to
this violation of Mr. Cornells civil rights: Many viewed it as an effort to sabotage his electoral

44
Public Statement by Jorge CornellAugust 12, 2009.

45
Watch the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQnECX6v234

21

campaign. After widespread outreach and a strong public response, Mr. Cornells lawyer was
able to have the curfew dropped.46
On August 12, 2009, at a press conference held by local clergy and community members,
Mr. Cornell referred to the charges from the downtown incident as another Gang Unit lie.47 He
stated,
First of all, no gang signs were flashed. Second, there were no Bloods anywhere
in the area. This kind of provocative, false public statement by the police can lead
to street groups fighting each other. Is the Gang Unit aware that their statements
can lead to fights and conflicts in the community? Fortunately, because of the
work that we did several months ago, I was able to talk with a couple of sets of
Bloods and confirm that not only were no Bloods present, but they re-affirmed
that there is no problem between ALKQN and the Bloods.48
He closed his statement by saying, The Gang Unit is a dangerous group. If they do not
understand the impact of what they are doing, then they need training. However, if they are
consciously attacking street groups and setting up street groups to fight each other, then they
need to be dismantled.49

46
See Jorge Cornell for Greensboro City Council, Archive for August 2009, p. 9, online at:
https://cornellforcouncil.wordpress.com/2009/08/page/2/

47
Public Statement by Jorge CornellAugust 12, 2009.

48
Ibid.

49
Ibid.

22

In addition to affording Mr. Cornell an opportunity to respond to his being wrongfully

arrested, the press conference of August 12, 2009 displayed an unlikely alliance between former
Gang Unit Officer Blake and Mr. Cornell. As a Black man of Honduran decent, Blake had
repeatedly expressed his objections to the Gang Units discriminatory policies and racist speech.
Due to Blakes own integrity and professionalism in voicing concern over the tactics used by the
Gang Unit, Blake himself was subjected to internal police ridicule and retaliatory dismissal. In
charging him with something he did not do and in the disciplinary steps they took against him
after firing him, the GPD gave ample illustration of the discriminatory practices about which the
former gang unit officer had complained.50
Prior to the press conference described above, at a regularly scheduled community
meeting at the Beloved Community Center, attended by both former Gang Unit Officer Blake
and Mr. Cornell, some community members were moved to witness the remarkable
reconciliation of these two men. Formerly enemies, the two shook hands and formed a genuine
and mutually respectful alliance.
Despite the actions of the Gang Unit Mr. Cornells resolve endured: He continued calling for
peace and organizing youth. His charismatic personality captivated youth who listened to his
call to lay down violence . . . commit to work together on positive community projects and
activities . . . and bring about more understanding between Black and Brown people.51 Jorge
Cornell steadfastly implemented an inspiring vision that he himself had helped develop along
50
See Jordan Green, Culture of Impunity: Unresolved Grievances in the GPD, Yes Weekly!,
July 7, 2010. http://yesweekly.com/article-9868-culture-of-impunity-unresolved-grievancesin-the-gpd.html

23

with the Beloved Community Center and the Pulpit Forum of Clergy. The full title of the
document announces its central theme; A Paradigm Shift: A Proposal to Engage Street Groups
or Gangs As a Potential Resource for Safe Communities, Justice Making and Community
Building.52
In the words of the Beloved Community Center, the plan lays out how
the community, the ALKQN, the school system, the clergy, the BCC and the
police could work together to reduce violence and promote community building.
The plan was discussed with then Mayor Yvonne Johnson, former City Manager
Mitchell Johnson and former Police Chief Timothy Bellamy. The Mayor
expressed support for the plan. The City Manager was willing to consider it. The
Police Chief, in our opinion representing the subculture of corruption and double
standards, strongly opposed the plan.53
The police harassment campaign against Jorge Cornell and his organization was
tantamount to sabotaging the opportunity for a better and safer community as laid out in A
Paradigm Shift. Generally, change does not arise unless and until there is an emerging concrete
example in which a person, or a group of people, demonstrates some of the features of the new
situation or different outcomes for which they and we strive. Mr. Cornell was that person! It
was the moral force of his example, his sacrifice, and his stand that led open-minded community
51
A Beginning: Towards Peace Among Us(Gangs), Agreement Reached Wednesday, July 23,
2008, Greensboro, North Carolina.

52
Beloved Community Center and the Pulpit Forum of Clergy, A Paradigm Shift: A Proposal to
Engage Street Groups or Gangs As a Potential Resource for Safe Communities, Greensboro,
NC, January 2009. A copy of this document is provided with this letter. See also:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/55756680/A-Paradigm-Shift-Gangs .

53
Our Democratic Mission, p. 26

24

members to imagine and reflect on a way to turn negative and unhealthy social relationships (as
for example the ALKQN and the police, or the ALKQN and other street groups) into healthy and
mutually beneficial ones.
A paradigm shift does not only explain in a theoretical sense how street organizations
could become a force for good in the community: The document that Mr. Cornell helped draft
details several concrete examples in which Mr. Cornells vision was put into practice and actually
guided the ALKQN for the better. Mr. Cornell taught many young people not to simply react
when they felt disrespected or offended but to sit down and talk out the problem in order to bring
about a satisfactory and peaceful solution.
Even with support for a paradigm shift in some sectors of city government and among
community leaders, matters did not improve for Mr. Cornell and his friends. Repeated acts of
police harassment were wearing down Mr. Cornell and ALKQN members, financially and
emotionally. They had less and less money to pay court costs, feed themselves or buy gas to
look for jobs.54 What the Greensboro clergy and other community members feared was that the
Gang Units tactics would effectively shut off legitimate employment and leave these youths
with no lawful way to support themselves, thus driving them to criminal activity--the very
criminal activity that ALKQN members had shunned until this point.
Finally, with local redress seemingly out of reach, a multiracial delegation of thirty-seven
Greensboro citizens, including Mr. Cornell, clergy members, students, college professors and
54
On more than one occasion, GPD officers went to places of employment to warn employers
they had a gang member working for them. One young ALKQN member was dismissed from
his job at the Greensboro Coliseum as a consequence of such a visit.

25

four current and former police officers, journeyed to Washington, D.C. in October 2010. There
they met with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to discuss their concerns about the systematic
way in which the GPD was targeting Mr. Cornell and vulnerable members of the community.55
The Greensboro delegation personally discussed with DOJ representatives the unlawful and
questionable police activity from which they were seeking relief and the violations of their
constitutional rights, which concerns were summed up in a Title VI Complaint.56
However, despite the Justice Departments assurances of a follow-up investigation, no
subsequent steps appear to have been taken and the Title VI complaint has still gone unanswered.
Instead, in the following year, the Department of Justice prosecutors charged Cornell and 13
other ALKQN codefendants with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations
Act (RICO) statute.57
In the eyes of people in the Greensboro community who are aware of the facts, there was
nothing in the conduct of Mr. Cornell and his North Carolina organization to warrant a RICO
indictment. Mr. Cornell was caught between a vicious police vendetta and a misapplied federal
RICO statute. When local police investigations resulted in no convictions of consequence,
despite years of surveillance, provocation and harassment, the GPD looked to RICO as a more
powerful weapon with which to bludgeon Mr. Cornell and the other defendants. Defense
55
Our Democratic Mission, p. 26.

56
Ibid.

57
Ibid

26

Attorney Michael Patrick, Mr. Cornells attorney, learned that the GPD lobbied the Justice
Department on several occasions to bring RICO charges but was refused.58
It is not our intention to speculate or revisit the trial that took place in the Middle District
of North Carolina in 2012. However, despite the trial and subsequent legal review, many in the
community are left wondering if justice was ever seriously sought. For one thing, former
ALKQN members who testified against Mr. Cornell reported they did so in order to reduce their
sentences for petty crimes they did commit and some, it was disclosed in court, were paid
sums as high as $14, 000 for their testimony.59 Also germane, but apparently ignored, was the
fact that many who testified against Jorge Cornell had been expelled from the organization for
not complying with the strict non-criminal practices that Cornell advocated.60
At trial, presentations by several lawyers, involving multiple defendants and testimonies,
evidently caused confusion about how the array of facts related to the star defendant, Mr.
Cornell. Jurors debated for four days and stated several times that they were unable to come to a
58
Ibid. We may speculate why the DOJ assented finally to the urgings of a municipal police
force but we do not know why or when this happened. Nothing in the objective situation
with the NC ALKQN had changed: the ALKQN did not begin to pursue criminal activity. We
only observe that it is the penchant and usual practice of the DOJ to support local police
organizations.

59
Ibid

60
Ibid. (Italics are ours.) The point is also made on page 26 of Our Democratic Mission that if
the Justice Department had investigated the Title VI Complaint brought to them by
Greensboro citizens in 2010, as they were required to do by law but did not do, the false
claims made by the GPD against Jorge Cornell and the ALKQN would have been exposed.
They would have seen there was no basis for RICO charges.

27

decision.61 They were told by the judge, apparently pressing for a verdict before Thanksgiving,
that the government had spent a great deal of money on the case, and would have to spend a lot
more if it were not concluded right away.62 The Beloved Community Center, which had worked
so closely with Mr. Cornell to end violence, bring peace to street organizations and harness
youthful energies into constructive, community-serving purposes, called what happened on
November 21, 2012, a Thanksgiving Eve pressure verdict.63 On November 21, 2012, the jury
hastily returned an irrational verdict of guilty (e.g. conviction on a charge for which no
connection to one of the defendants was ever made) for Cornell and two other members of the
ALKQN group of six being tried64
IV.

CONSIDER COMMUTATION FOR JORGE CORNELL

We sincerely hope that our petition, on behalf of Jorge Cornell, for commutation of his
twenty-eight year sentence to time served, as well as remittance of fines he has paid, be
considered in the justice-loving spirit in which it is made. We have stated here what we know
and believe to be true; and we have not omitted any relevant information which, if considered,
would paint a very different picture. While we believe that we have provided a sufficient basis
61
Ibid.

62
Ibid

63
Ibid

64
Ibid

28

for a decision of commutation, we would like to conclude our plea for justice with some
additional and important perspectives from which to review this matter.
Does the DOJ really want Mr. Cornells case as a poster child for RICO? Does Mr.
Cornells case best advertise RICOs effectiveness or its failure? Since its inception, the statute
has been much criticized by prominent legal minds on grounds of its unfairness and attack upon
civil liberties. Former federal prosecutor Gerard E. Lynch, who has written extensively about
RICO, called it incredibly vague and amorphous.65 The statute is overly broad and sweeping in
its implications of guilt by association.
As best as we can discern, several conspiracy charges, in a very loose and mostly false
fashion, tied Mr. Cornell to others with whom he may have associated at some time. The RICO
statute allowed for essentially criminalizing Mr. Cornell for mere association, without proof of
criminal culpability or responsibility on his part.
What is more, the amount of money derived from the petty crimes for which some
defendants were charged was hardly what one expects from racketeering activity. It would be a
different matter if Mr. Cornell was in fact just bad at racketeering activity; the truth is that the
cooperating witnesses acted on their own and out of individual greed.
For example, one actual robbery that may indeed be attributed to a former Latin King, but
not to Mr. Cornell, involved a dry cleaning establishment in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was
a crime that would not normally be deemed a federal offense. But federal jurisdiction (interstate
65
Scot J. Paltrow, Debate Rages Over the Long Arm of RICO, Los Angeles Times, August 13,
1989.

29

commerce) was tenuously established when prosecutors argued that the cleaning fluid purchased
by the store owner had come from another state. Hence, a RICO offense was born. The small
amounts of monetary gain from this and other crimes charged in this RICO case (arguably too
small to appropriately be assigned to federal jurisdiction) did not end up increasing the wealth of
Mr. Cornell or lifting any of the North Carolina Latin Kings from their impoverished and
downtrodden social moorings.
Moreover, the infringement of civil and human rights for which some RICO prosecutions
this case among them have become notorious, is a shared concern of many organizations and
individuals in North Carolina. Those who have been paying attention to Mr. Cornells case
understand the question posed by one member of our community about Mr. Cornell and the
North Carolina ALKQN, were they a criminal network or a social justice organization? Mr.
Cornell is not a criminal but an activist concerned with issues of poverty and social justice.
Another lens through which to view Mr. Cornell is to consider the lost opportunity --what
might have happened if the GPD and ALKQN had been able to collaborate to rid the city of
actual gang violence? Please consider the thinking-outside-the-box that is represented by a
paradigm shift, in which Mr. Cornell, working with the Greensboro community and its municipal
leaders, steers troubled youth into lawful community service. What if at least some of the federal
resources the local police received to suppress gang activity had been used to support
wholesome activities for the members of street organizations, as Mr. Cornell was trying to do?
Couldnt this have been done without sacrificing the important police function of stopping crime
in its tracks, reducing crime and keeping the citys residents safe and protected? We cannot
change the past but a lost opportunity in the past could become a real and redeeming possibility
30

in the future. The commutation of Jorge Cornells sentence could be a bridge from a flawed past
to a more hopeful future for Greensboro, North Carolina.
There is no question that commutation would signify a more hopeful future for Mr. Cornell
and his family. His two daughters, Janice and Abigail, now teenagers, are fully integrated into
the Greensboro Community. They suffered a great deal from their fathers treatment at the hands
of the GPDs Gang Unit. The short and infrequent visits to the prison hardly afford the
opportunity for nurturing parental love and moral guidance such as they enjoyed previously. Mr.
Cornells daughters are bright and delightful young ladies with beautiful spirits. Janice and
Abigail need to be reunited with their father. Janice, the older one, is about to go west to naval
training school. She has her heart set on becoming an officer in the United States Navy.66 We, his
friends and supporters, urge you to free Mr. Cornell so that he may be at his daughters side for
the next chapter of their lives and present when Janice is inducted into the U.S. Navy.
As a final lens with which to consider commutation for Mr. Cornell please think about the
good he will do once he has regained his freedom: He might continue the promising work he
began in Greensboro as a mentor to youth, a peacemaker, and a community organizer. He was
moving toward implementing the paradigm shift that would convert the youthful energies of
members of street organizations into a community asset and model for all youth. At the time of
his arrest in 2011, Mr. Cornell was working diligently to develop an innovative, non-profit
employment agency to provide jobs for motivated young people with criminal records. With the
66
Phone conversation from Jorge Cornell in Federal Correctional Institution, Petersburg,
Virginia to Signe Waller Foxworth in Greensboro, North Carolina, toward the end of February
2016.

31

help of some Greensboro Clergy and a number of influential citizens in the city, Mr. Cornell
shaped Community United Staffing. It had a distinguished Board and had secured an
arrangement with at least two companies to hire felons, as long as they were trained and
recommended by Community United Staffing.67 All of Mr. Cornells aspirations were rudely
interrupted when he was unjustly indicted and convicted. But keep in mind that it is the work
described above, or work along those lines, that is likely to occupy a free Jorge Cornell.
For all the reasons we have set forth in this letter, and in the name of Justice and
Compassion, we petition you to commute the sentence of an upstanding and honorable citizen,
Mr. Jorge Cornell.

67
Our Democratic Mission, p. 27

32