News-Record.com

Here’s an interesting footnote to the story about Sidney Lowe II, and the shameless lengths his family went to convince a judge that the Devil made him commit armed robbery: The person who said the most hurtful things about N.C. A&T turning the young man bad ought to know better and he probably did.

If you missed it, here's one Grace said, in a plea for lenience for Lowe, the son of the N.C. State basketball coach:

Lowe’s uncle, Michael A. Grace, is a well-regarded attorney based in Winston-Salem.
He has taken on his share of high-profile during a long career there.

According to Web site of the firm of Grace Tisdale & Clifton, Grace's resume includes a degree from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1977 and a post as an adjunct professor for the Wake Forest law school Clinic Program.

He also is a member of the Board of Directors of Mechanics and Farmers Bank, a black-owned firm which Grace presumably didn't need to "thug up" to become affiliated.

Among his clients: Michael Charles Hayes, who fatally shot four people and wounded five more in a 30-minute shooting spree in Winston-Salem in 1988.

“If you find that Michael Hayes was not insane, you are saying there is no such thing as insanity in North Carolina,” Grace said in arguments during Hayes’ sentencing in 1989.

Hayes was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He said he thought he was shooting at demons.

Grace practices law now with Donald K. Tisdale, the former Forsyth County district attorney who prosecuted the Darryl Hunt trial. Tisdale is not a beloved figure in the Winston-Salem black community, which questioned his tactics during the Hunt.

Hunt was exonerated by DNA evidence after being imprisoned for nearly 20 years for a murder he did not commit. But I digress.

The firm’s Web site touts Grace as “ as one of the preeminent criminal defense lawyers in North Carolina.”

A&T alumni are not so impressed.

They say they’ve been e-mailing Grace and calling his law office to give him a piece of their mind.

But while even Lowe II's crimes pale in comparison to Hayes', Grace used a similar strategy in his appeal for compassion in the case of his nephew: He was not responsible for his actions.

I wrote above that Grace should have known better in blaming A&T for the younger Lowe's descent into drugs and crime.

Maybe Grace knew precisely what he was doing.