Winston-Salem Journal
City Edition
Tuesday, March 23, 1982—Page 15
Probe of CWP Killings
Special Prosecutor Is Sought
Attorneys for the Greensboro Justice
Fund decided yesterday to ask that a
special prosecutor be appointed to run
the special grand jury that is Investigating the shooting deaths of five Communist Workers Party members in 1979.
Alter the 22-member grand jury was
sworn In yesterday morning, Judge Richard C. Erwin of U. S. District Court denied the attorneys' request for a prosecutor outside the U. S. Department of Justice.
The attorneys made their request
Thursday in a motion filed in Greensboro.
They contend that the prosecutors now
running the grand jury — U. S. Attorney
Kenneth W. McAllister and Michael D.
Johnson, an attorney with the Justice
Department's civil rights division —
have a conflict of interest
There is a conflict, they say, because
the Justice Department is representing
some of the 86 defendants in a civil rights
lawsuit that the fund filed in 1980. Among
the 86 defendants are the Justice Department, the FBI and Bernard Butkovich,
an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms.
The Greensboro Justice Fund is a nonprofit organization formed after" the
shootings in November 1979. Since the
time of the acquittal of six Nazis and Ku
Klux Klansmen charged in the shootings,
the fund has sought the indictment of
those charged, as well as local, state and
federal government officials.
Erwin said that he lacks the authority
to appoint a special prosecutor. He suggested that the fund ask the attorney
general to make the appointment.
The swearing-in of the grand jury was
delayed almost an hour this morning
while Erwin met with attorneys in his
chambers to discuss the request for a
special prosecutor and the two other mo
tions that attorneys filed last week.
Erwin also denied the other motions,
but fund members said that the judge's .
instructions to the jurors accomplished
the aim. The motions asked the judge to
question each potential juror to detect
any bias and to tell the jury that it is
independent and can call witnesses beyond those called by the.government.
"This is short of what we wanted, but .
we feel it's in the right direction," Nelson ;
Johnson, a spokesman for the Commu- ',
nist Workers Party, said during a press \
conference after the jury was sworn.
Various religious and civil-rights lead- ',
ers from around the country attended the |
press conference and expressed their !
hopes that the grand jury will seek in- |
dictments against those responsible for
the violence at an anti-Klan rally Nov. 3,
1979. ; .
The special grand jury is investigating
the possibility of civil rights violations in
the case.
