North Carolina Racial Justice Act
The North Carolina Racial Justice Act (RJA), which passed in August 2009, allows capital defendants, for the first time, to use statistical evidence to show systemic bias in the death penalty. If a defendant successfully proves that race was a significant factor in decisions to seek or impose the death penalty at the time of his or her trial, the court is required to convert that sentence to life in prison.
Claims of racial bias in cases brought under the RJA are supported by a new, comprehensive study of the death penalty in North Carolina by researchers from Michigan State University (MSU) and other, similar studies in North Carolina and southern states.
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VIDEO The North Carolina Racial Justice Act was passed in 2009 to protect capital cases from racial bias. Now, Legislators are attacking the Racial Justice Act saying it isn't necessary. But in North Carolina, racial bias in the justice system is alive and well.
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These studies show:
Racial Bias in Jury Selection: The MSU study of jury selection found significant evidence that North Carolina prosecutors select juries in a racially biased manner. Prosecutors used peremptory strikes to remove qualified African-American jurors at more than twice the rate that they excluded white jurors. Of the 159 inmates now on death row in North Carolina, 31 were sentenced by all-white juries, and another 38 had only one minority on their sentencing juries.
Racial Bias in Prosecutorial Charging Decisions and Jury Sentencing: The MSU study of capital charging and sentencing found that those who kill whites are more likely to get the death penalty than those who kill blacks. The MSU study found that a defendant is 2.6 times more likely to get the death penalty if the victim is white.
Read the studies:
Michigan State University College of Law - Report on Jury Selection Study
DPIC: Race and the Death Penalty in North Carolina, An Empirical Analysis: 1993-1997
North Carolina Law Review: Race and Death Sentencing in North Carolina, 1980-2007
EJI: Illegal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection: A Continuing Legacy
Cases brought under the RJA
North Carolina v. Robinson: In April 2012, a North Carolina judge found statistical evidence of racial bias in the death penalty, commuting the death sentence of Marcus Robinson to life without parole in this landmark case.
Petitions Filed Under North Carolina’s Historic Racial Justice Act: On August 3, 2010, five North Carolina death row inmates filed claims under the RJA Act. Their cases are based on specific incidents of racial bias as well as statistical evidence from three new comprehensive studies of the death penalty in North Carolina.
