Fact vs. Fiction: Did Roy Cooper Let Jimmie Speight Out of Prison?

Claim by: Senate Leadership Fund PAC (Mike Whatley)

A Senate Leadership Fund ad claims that former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper “let Speight out,” referring to Jimmie Speight Jr. The ad links that claim to Speight’s later criminal charges and murder conviction, stating: “Cooper let Speight out. Then Speight sexually assaulted a woman and murdered an innocent man.”

Explanation

This claim is false.

The ad suggests that either Cooper or the 2021 COVID-era prison settlement led to Speight’s release from prison. However, the official North Carolina Department of Adult Correction record shows that Speight was released from prison on Nov. 25, 2020, for his motor vehicle larceny sentence. The same record lists Nov. 25, 2020, as both his actual and projected release date, meaning the state prison record does not show that he was released early from that sentence.

That timeline matters because the COVID-era prison settlement was announced later, on Feb. 25, 2021. In its official statement on the settlement agreement, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety said the state would transition 3,500 offenders out of prison over the following six months through several early reentry tools. Speight, however, had already been released from prison about three months before that settlement was entered.

The ad is correct that Speight later faced serious charges. In April 2021, WITN reported that Speight was charged with murder and accused of kidnapping and rape in a separate incident. The state prison record later shows he was convicted in 2023 of second-degree murder and sentenced to more than 32 years in prison.

However, those later crimes do not prove the ad’s central claim. The available official records show that Speight was already out of prison before the 2021 settlement was in place. Reporting by The Assembly has also found that it is inaccurate to claim that everyone on the settlement list was released early, since some people were already out of prison or were counted for reasons unrelated to an early release.

Conclusion

Fact or Fiction? Fiction. The claim that Roy Cooper “let Speight out” is not supported by the official timeline. Speight was released from prison on Nov. 25, 2020, months before the Feb. 25, 2021 COVID-era prison settlement. The official state record lists his actual and projected release dates as the same day, undermining the ad’s implication that Cooper or the settlement caused his release.