Editorial - N.C. House Republicans Ignore Fairness in Gutting Racial Justice Act

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Video coverage of the Board of Chatham County (NC) Commissioners Meetings are available by using this link.

For continuing coverage of Randy Voller, Chair of the North Carolina State Democratic Party, is available by using this link.

Monday, 18 June 2012 15:29

The Wilmington STAR News On-Line

House Republicans didn’t have enough votes to override Gov. Beverly Perdue’s 2011 veto of the Racial Justice Act, so they did the next best thing: The decided to “amend” it to death.

The reworked bill, which passed the House and now will go back to the Senate doesn’t repeal the Racial Justice Act – it merely guts it to the point that the effect will be the same.

The groundbreaking law, much derided by prosecutors and “law-and-order” politicians, recognizes that the death penalty has not always been applied equally in North Carolina. A Michigan State University study showed a strong correlation between the race of the victim and jury composition and the likelihood that a murder defendant was sentenced to death

In 2009, North Carolina became only the second death penalty state in the nation to offer condemned murderers a chance to prove that race played a factor in their sentences. It is neither a guarantee of success nor a Get Out of Jail Free card. Success results in a commuted sentence of life without parole.

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Editorial - N.C. House Republicans Ignore Fairness in Gutting Racial Justice Act
Monday, 18 June 2012
The Wilmington STAR News On-Line House Republicans didn’t have enough votes to override Gov. Beverly Perdue’s 2011 veto of the Racial Justice...

Chatham County (NC) Democratic Party - Official Site

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