This weekend, the 74th annual North Carolina NAACP state conference will take place in the state's capital of Raleigh.

This year's convention will be a meeting of local members, religious leaders and political leaders alike, but one central North Carolina official was informed that he's not welcomed to the conference at all this year.

The New Observer reports that Reverend William J. Barber, the current president of the NC NAACP, sent NC Governor Roy Cooper a letter back in September telling him not to expect the invitation that has been traditionally extended to governors.

And in the letter, Barber explained that the reasons why is the governor's delay in pardoning 42-year-old Montoyae "Dontae" Sharpe.

In 1995, Sharpe was accused and convicted of the murder of 33-year-old George Radcliffe in Greenville, North Carolina during a 1994 drug deal.

Sharpe rejected a plea deal that would've resulted in a sentence that would've set him free years ago, maintaining that he was innocent. There's no physical evidence that connects Sharpe to the crime, and an eyewitness recanted his story.

Also, a former Greenville homicide detective that testified against Sharpe during the trial now believes he was wrongly convicted because of vague testimony.

In May, the Pitt County district attorney announced that her office had begun conducting another investigation into Sharpe’s conviction as a result of the NAACP calling for an independent investigation into the case. The NAACP reached out for years to Cooper for help before he became governor (when he served as the state's attorney general) to no avail.

“Dontae Sharpe deserves a gubernatorial pardon and to live in freedom with his name restored,” Barber said in the letter to the governor. “Your office has held his pardon application in your possession and under review since the day you took office. His pleas have been before you for years as attorney general, when thousands asked you to appoint an independent prosecutor. Our system has failed Dontae. Yet, your power and his life are intertwined. It is time to transform this entanglement from a curse to a blessing.”

According to Barber, Sharpe’s mother will be in attendance at the three-day conference. On Thursday, October 6, the conference's attendees held a candlelight vigil in the state capital, calling for Cooper and the new state attorney general, Josh Stein, to set Sharpe free.

Cooper reportedly replied to Barber's letter with a letter of his own that did not mention Dontae Sharpe at all:

“I always enjoy talking with members about a wide variety of concerns. These conversations often help me, and my office make a positive difference for communities across North Carolina. I will continue to fight for strong public schools, more health care, elimination of voter suppression, better paying jobs, higher wages and many other efforts about which we agree.”