deathwatch's blog

It has been a little over a week since the North Carolina General Assembly voted to repeal the Racial Justice Act, a landmark piece of legislation which enabled death row inmates to challenge their sentences by showing patterns of racial discrimination in the jurisdictions where they were tried.

Since then, Republican lawmakers have been accused of ignoring undisputed evidence of racial bias in the administration of the death penalty and abusing the legislative system to sneak through legislation without public oversight.

Groups including the NC-NAACP have called on Governor Beverly Perdue to veto the bill, but there has been no word from her office as of this writing. Under North Carolina law, Governor Perdue has 30 days to issue a veto. The Governor has indicated that she will make her decision next week.

Four Republican House members introduced a bill yesterday designed to repeal North Carolina’s landmark Racial Justice Act. Representatives Burr (Montgomery, Stanly, Union), Stevens (Alleghany, Surry), Ingle (Alamance), and Stam (Wake) have sponsored House Bill 615 in an effort to short-circuit ongoing litigation and prevent the courts from answering the ultimate question posed by the RJA: does race play a role in the administration of the death penalty in North Carolina?

The Civitas Institute, a libertarian group based in Raleigh, has released a new poll purporting to show that support for the death penalty in North Carolina has increased, and that voters support commencing executions immediately. What the poll actually shows is that Civitas is not above misleading voters to get the results it wants.

Quick Facts

• Executions: 0
• Persons removed from death row for other reasons: 3
• New death sentences: 4
• Capital trials not resulting in death: 9

Read more below the fold.

North Carolinians don’t want executions under cloud of tainted evidence, racial bias, and high cost

More than two-thirds of North Carolinians believe executions should be halted in the wake of the SBI scandal, 58% percent believe a finding of racial bias should prohibit an execution, and more than two-thirds are willing to consider ending the death penalty due to the high cost of capital punishment, a new poll shows.

A report released today by two former FBI agents, commissioned to review North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation laboratory in the wake of the Greg Taylor exoneration, finds that the convictions of three people executed in North Carolina were based in part on forensic reports and testimony that were, to be kind, misleading. The report is available online here.

(a press release from the Center for Death Penalty Litigation)

NC Racial Justice Act: First Five Death Row Defendants File Motions Citing Strong Evidence of Racial Bias

Durham, NC -- One year ago, the North Carolina General Assembly took the trailblazing step of passing the Racial Justice Act, a guarantee that no person would be put to death because of racial bias in our state’s justice system.

This week, the law is finally being put to the test. Five death row inmates have asked the courts to convert their death sentences to life imprisonment without parole. All can prove that race played a key role in their trials.

There's been a lot of talk about the Racial Justice Act since the General Assembly went back into session. It's time to separate fact from fiction.

Fiction

The Racial Justice Act was meant to apply only to African-American defendants. (See statement of Halifax District Attorney Melissa Pelfrey.)

Fact

First, it would be unconstitutional to apply a particular criminal penalty only to persons of one race. Racially disproportionate application of the death penalty is the problem the RJA seeks to cure, not to cause.

Second, by its terms, the Racial Justice Act is concerned not only with the race of the defendant, but also with the race of the victim and the composition of the jury.

Yesterday, Abdullah El-Amin Shareef was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The unanimous jury vote came after almost eight hours of deliberation, six and a half weeks of trial, and six years of waiting for the families on both sides.

Quick Numbers

# of executions – 0

# of inmates leaving death row for other reasons – 5

# of new death sentences – 2

# of death penalty trials resulting in less than death – 7