2 Inmates: Who is more deserving of mercy, Black or Decker?

(By Scott Sexton, Winston-Salem Journal) - Poor Jim Black. The disgraced former speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives is now wasting away in a federal prison in Pennsylvania, the result of his own arrogance and conviction on a public-corruption charge.

He would be sitting there far from the headlines serving out the remainder of a sentence scheduled to keep him behind prison walls until 2012 save one thing -- a campaign to either have Black, 74, moved to a prison closer to home, or cut loose altogether under a compassionate early-release program. More than 150 Black supporters -- including former Gov. Jim Martin -- have written to federal officials seeking mercy. According to his lawyers, Black tried to help the government with its investigation of corruption in North Carolina, and thus deserves some consideration. Plus, his health is failing and his wife is suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease.

As sad as that may be -- Black's wife didn't make any of this mess -- there is someone else that the feds ought to consider before Black: Mike Decker, the former state representative from Walkertown whose actual cooperation helped take the speaker down.