The lonely demonstrator

Outside the Charlotte Convention Center, on a street crowded with Democratic delegates, reporters and button vendors, Lew Powell is waging a quiet, one-man campaign.

In his floppy hat and sunglasses, he stands their holding a hand-stenciled sign that says, "Exonerate Edenton 7."

What?

The Edenton 7 were North Carolinians associated with a day care center called Little Rascals in Edenton. They were prosecuted in the early 1990s over sexual abuse charges in a case that was highly publicized. Some charges were dropped, convictions were later overturned.

What concerns Powell, a former editorial page staffer at the Observer, is that the seven have never been pardoned or officially exonerated. He's taken on the cause virtually single-handedly, even starting a web site about the case.

"The in justice of it just got me," he said, holding his sign on the street. The way the system bullied people who were completely innocent... and no one will admit they were wrong."

So Powell will carry his sign during the convention, hoping to raise at least a little awareness of the case.

"I'm almost 68 years old," he says, "And this is the first time I've ever held a protest sign."