Biography
William Joe Wright was one of the Wilmington Ten, convicted on October 17, 1972 of firebombing Mike's Grocery and conspiracy to assault emergency personnel during the racial unrest in Wilmington, North Carolina in February 1971. He died around 1990, before the 2012 pardons. The ten were sentenced to a combined 282 years; after roughly five years free on appeal bond they began serving their terms on February 2, 1976. Their case became an international cause célèbre (Amnesty International named them prisoners of conscience); a federal appeals court overturned the convictions on December 4, 1980, and North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue granted the ten pardons of innocence on December 31, 2012.
