{"id":34952,"date":"2025-01-06T01:59:18","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T01:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=34952"},"modified":"2025-01-06T01:59:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T01:59:19","slug":"durham-da-prosecute-felon-in-possession-nah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=34952","title":{"rendered":"Durham DA: Prosecute Felon In Possession? Nah!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:870,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.ncdistrictattorney.org\\\/district-attorney\\\/prosecutorial-district-16&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.ncdistrictattorney.org\\\/district-attorney\\\/prosecutorial-district-16\\\/&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:871,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.policedefense.org\\\/santana-deberry\\\/#&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260401145701\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.policedefense.org\\\/santana-deberry\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-15 10:23:03&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-30 15:56:15&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-30 15:56:15&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:872,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.wral.com\\\/story\\\/an-absolute-slap-to-the-face-of-justice-family-critical-of-durham-s-felony-conviction-rates\\\/20355887&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.wral.com\\\/story\\\/an-absolute-slap-to-the-face-of-justice-family-critical-of-durham-s-felony-conviction-rates\\\/20355887\\\/&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:873,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.wral.com\\\/news\\\/investigates\\\/durham-da-firearm-felon-policy-december-2024&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.wral.com\\\/news\\\/investigates\\\/durham-da-firearm-felon-policy-december-2024\\\/&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:874,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/shows.audiocdn.com\\\/s\\\/capitolbroadcasting\\\/wral-daily-download\\\/emails-reveal-a-local-di-c320e6&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20250710012801\\\/https:\\\/\\\/shows.audiocdn.com\\\/s\\\/capitolbroadcasting\\\/wral-daily-download\\\/emails-reveal-a-local-di-c320e6&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-15 10:24:02&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-21 09:16:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-30 15:56:18&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-30 15:56:18&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Santana Deberry is the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncdistrictattorney.org\/district-attorney\/prosecutorial-district-16\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">district attorney for Durham County<\/a><\/strong>, North Carolina. The county and the 16th Prosecutorial District are co-terminus. Deberrry first took office in 2019 and was re-elected in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"475\" height=\"660\" src=\"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-34953\" style=\"width:377px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image.png 475w, https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-216x300.png 216w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 475px) 100vw, 475px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">NC Conf. of District Attorneys<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div style=\"height:36px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.policedefense.org\/santana-deberry\/#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund<\/a><\/strong>, Deberry was backed to the tune of over $260,000 by George Soros through monies funneled through organizations such as Fair and Just Prosecution and the Forward Justice Action Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, it should come as no surprise that the conviction rate for murder in her district is lower than adjoining districts as well as the state average. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wral.com\/story\/an-absolute-slap-to-the-face-of-justice-family-critical-of-durham-s-felony-conviction-rates\/20355887\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to WRAL<\/a><\/strong>, in Deberry&#8217;s first four years as DA, her office only had a 24% murder conviction rate comparted to 67% in adjoining Wake County and 45% for the state as a whole. Her initial campaign for office said she was going to concentrate on the prosecution of violent crime while minimizing petty crime prosecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wral.com\/news\/investigates\/durham-da-firearm-felon-policy-december-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more recent investigation by WRAL<\/a><\/strong> of Deberry&#8217;s office found that they have a policy dictated by Deberry of not prosecuting &#8220;felon in possession of a firearm&#8221; charges if there was no violence or threats of violence. Adjoining prosecutorial districts take a very different approach. In Wake County, now the state&#8217;s largest county, if there is sufficient evidence to prove that felon was in possession of a firearm, they refuse to drop the charges. Likewise, DA Jeff Nieman whose district includes Chatham and Orange Counties says his office &#8220;prosecutes all possession of a firearm by a felon charges&#8221; so long as they have sufficient evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Durham County&#8217;s Gang Violence Reduction Manager conducted a study in 2022 of inmates in the Durham County Detention Center and asked why they carried firearms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The response?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;It was very interesting,&#8221; he said.\u00a0 &#8220;I asked them why they carried a firearm. And some of them said they saw no consequences for carrying a firearm.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>While many inmates so no consequences to carrying a firearm, both the police and the community are seeing the consequences with the crime rate in Durham. As Mary Long, the sister of a 2019 murder victim notes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>You can&#8217;t just allow the crime to happen without accountability, and that seems to be where we&#8217;re faltering &#8212; the accountability end&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s disheartening to hear the stories, the amount of violence that&#8217;s in the front page of the news, and then not to see remedies being taken. To just dismiss it and allow them to walk out the door, without any accountability? That&#8217;s scary.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Sarah Krueger, an investigative reporter with WRAL, goes more in-depth on this story and how she found the internal memos detailing the no prosecution policy in this <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/shows.audiocdn.com\/s\/capitolbroadcasting\/wral-daily-download\/emails-reveal-a-local-di-c320e6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">audio podcas<\/a>t.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Durham County  is the bluest of the blue. In the 2024 election, Democrat candidates including VP Kamala Harris averaged about 80% (if not more) of the vote while Republican candidates got about 18% of the vote. In 2022, the breakdown was the same. Deberry was unopposed for re-election that year though she did receive fewer votes than other candidates in contested races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The moral of the story is you get what you vote for.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Santana Deberry is the district attorney for Durham County, North Carolina. The county and the 16th Prosecutorial District are&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6995,6994,910,6996],"class_list":["post-34952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-da-santana-deberry","tag-durham-county-nc","tag-felon-in-possession","tag-george-soros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34952"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34959,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34952\/revisions\/34959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}