 The Charlotte Three case was an event that epitomized the larger issues of politics, race, and the civil rights movement in the South.The commuting of the sentences for the men may not have actually been purely due to the reasons publicly stated, but instead for hidden political ones.In 1979, an election year, there was a lot of turmoil and Governor Hunt and the Democratic party were worried about the backlash that would ensue if the men were still imprisoned at the time of the election.