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| Racial Justice Act: Law could curtail death penalty |
| By fayobserver.com/ |
| Published: 08/20/2009 |
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A new law in North Carolina could help murderers get off death row and stymie prosecutors who seek capital punishment in future cases, according to legal experts. Last month, North Carolina became the second state after Kentucky to enact the Racial Justice Act, which seeks to ensure that race plays no role in who gets sentenced to death. Defense lawyers say the law will help ensure fairness. Yet some prosecutors worry it will create an unnecessary burden and strain the court system. Robeson County's district attorney predicts the law will dredge up old cases and further erode the imposition of capital punishment. "We hope that it serves its intended purpose, and that is to prevent people from being put on death row because of their race," said Ron McSwain, the head of the Cumberland County Public Defender Office. The law creates mechanisms for defendants to attempt to prove that race factored into their death sentences. If they win their claims, they can't be executed. The claims can be supported by documented racial incidents - a juror using a racist epithet, for example - or by statistics that showed the race of the accused or victim was a significant factor in whether people are sentenced to death. Among the 163 people on North Carolina's death row, more than half - 88 inmates - are black. Sixty-two are white. The Racial Justice Act was spawned in part from a 2001 study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The study, which evaluated North Carolina cases from 1993 to 1997, found that murderers who killed white people were 3.4 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who killed nonwhites. Read More. |
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