Nathan Wayne Bowie, on N.C.'s Death Row, gave his $1,200 stimulus check to the families of his victims.
Nathan is on Death Row for the murders of Nelson Shuford and Calvin Wilson in Catawba County in 1991.
Nathan is a changed man in the twenty-seven years he’s spent on Death Row. He’s now 50-years old. His crimes were committed when he was 20-years old.
When Nathan went on trial for his life, the lawyer in charge of his defense was drinking nine shots of 80-proof rum every night. Tom Portwood, who later died of alcohol-related illnesses, was an alcoholic for 30 years. On his deathbed, he admitted he started drinking as soon as he woke up in the morning and went to court drunk, that drinking affected his decision-making as a lawyer, and that many people went to jail because of his malpractice.
During his representation of Nathan, Portwood was involved in a car wreck and his blood alcohol level was measured a near-fatal .40, five times the legal limit. It is largely due to Portwood’s disastrous legal representation that Nathan sits on death row today. Nathan and his uncle were tried together and sentenced to death for the murders of two Catawba County men.
Competent legal representation almost certainly would have saved Nathan’s life. First, Nathan turned down an offer to plead guilty to second-degree murder, which would have spared him a death sentence. If he took the plea, he’d likely be a free man now.
Portwood never took the time to discuss in detail with Nathan the advantages of the plea or why he should accept it. Then, when he went to trial, Portwood and his inexperienced co-counsel put on no evidence in the guilt phase of the trial and next to none in the sentencing phase. They also failed to hire a mental health expert or investigator, and as a result, the jury never heard the tragic story of Nathan’s life.
Nathan endured a childhood of extreme physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and chaos – the type of social history that the U.S. Supreme Court says defines mitigating evidence and, if presented to a jury, begs for a life sentence. At the time of his birth, Nathan’s father was in prison for murder. His mother was 16 years old and addicted to drugs and alcohol. She whipped him with a strap and punched him in the chest as a toddler. When he was just preschool age, she locked him in a room alone for hours at a time.
His mother had other children, whom she often left alone for long periods. They were extremely poor, moved frequently and lived in conditions so squalid that the children were bitten by rats. They were sometimes homeless, and when Nathan was eight, they lived in a battered women’s shelter. The Department of Social Services removed Nathan from his mother’s care when he was 12 years old. He was sent to Sipe’s Boys Home, where he lived from ages 13 to 19 — and was abused again.
Sexual abuse was rampant at Sipes during that time, and Nathan slept with a large stick he called his “protector.” He and the other black children were also subjected to constant racial slurs. Sipes has been investigated, and at least one employee has been prosecuted for sexually assaulting a child there. Prosecutors also failed to turn over key mitigating evidence, such as the evidence of sexual, physical, and verbal abuse at Sipes. The prosecutor said in closing argument that Sipes was a decent place, even though he had previously signed off on a plea agreement in a case involving three sexual assaults against Sipes’ residents.
Nathan is African American. In the sentencing phase of his trial, the Black prosecutor urged the jury of 11 whites and one African American to impose the death penalty by referencing a “gangland” type shooting - not at all the circumstances of this crime. It was a personal dispute that involved his aunt. The night before she was shot at or over her head.
The jury that sentenced Nathan to death never heard from even one of the Sipes boys’ home witnesses – the people who loved and knew Nathan best.
Due to unfair procedural rules, the federal judge refused to consider evidence that Portwood perjured himself about his alcohol usage at Nathan’s Motion for Appropriate Relief (MAR) hearing.
The current elected District Attorney, Scott Reilly, was the second-chair counsel for the prosecution at Nathan's trial.
The federal courts found that Nathan’s trial lawyers’ representation of him was “deficient” but astoundingly, found no prejudice. Bowie v. Polk, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74839 (W.D.N.C. 2006), aff’d Bowie v. Branker, 512 F.3d 112 (4th Cir. 2008), U.S. cert. denied.
Nathan told me about reading a book about an Asian custom where a murderer who confessed would approach the family of his victim and offer help. “We are in the middle of a global pandemic. Families are going through hardships, financial difficulties and stress from an unimaginable situation. Right now, I have the chance to make the right decision. I’m truly sorry and want to help the families of Nelson Shuford and Calvin Wilson progress." That's why he gave his stimulus check to the families of his victims'. "My entire family and all my friends support my decision. [I hope my] message . . . to help the families of my victims, reach[es] the ears of many. I feel strongly that other prisoners will join my mission. Change is needed right now in this world. Please join me in making a change.”
Sometimes a message of hope comes from a place where one assumes there is little hope. A journey toward reconciliation starts with that single step and a hand reaching out . . .
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