The reasons this legislation was needed in NC:
• The RJA involves an issue of great public concern to our State and should be handled with care and deliberation. Since 2007, three North Carolina death row inmates have been exonerated of their crimes: Jonathan Hoffman, Glen Chapman, and Bo Jones. All three are black men accused of killing white victims.
• A Charlotte Observer investigation in 2000 found that those who killed whites in the Carolinas were more likely to wind up on death row than those who killed blacks. The investigation also found that blacks who killed whites were three times more likely to face execution as murder suspects generally.
• Another study conducted in 2001 by professors from UNC-Chapel Hill concluded that the odds of being sentenced to death increase by 3.5 times when the victim is white. This conclusion was reached even after a sophisticated statistical analysis considered the effects of non-racial factors that might influence whether a case results in death, such as the criminal record of the defendant or the heinousness of the crime.
• In 1987, the United States Supreme Court in McCleskey v. Kemp ruled that racial disparities were “an inevitable part of our criminal justice system” and refused to recognize the injustice that exists when statistics show that race affects how we as a society choose who lives and who dies.
• In McCleskey, the Supreme Court said that statistical evidence of racial disparities in the death penalty “are best presented to the legislative bodies,” which are able to evaluate this issue “in terms of their own local conditions.” In passing the RJA, the General Assembly responded to the Supreme Court’s invitation to create a state-specific tool for addressing racial injustice in our system of capital punishment.
• After retiring, the justice who wrote the majority opinion in McCleskey, Lewis Powell, said that he regretted his decision in that case.
Read below for more information on the Racial Justice Act:
Is the Racial Justice Act causing inappropriate delays in capital trials?
The RJA has not caused any delays:
• In the eight months prior to the RJA’s enactment on August 10, 2009, there were seven capital trials in North Carolina. In the nine months since the RJA was enacted, seven capital trials have occurred or are in progress. Therefore, trials have been ongoing at the same exact pace since the passage of the RJA.
• Moreover, so far this year there have been more capital trials (five) than there were this time last year prior to the RJA’s passage (three).
Some have pointed to Demetrius Montgomery’s case in Charlotte as an instance in which the RJA has been used as a delay tactic. In that case, the judge has moved the capital trial from July 2010 to October 2010 to allow for consideration of RJA-related issues.
Is the Racial Justice Act being used inappropriately used to delay Montgomery's trial?
• Even if Mr. Montgomery’s trial does not begin until October, his case will have gone to trial as quickly as every other capital case in Charlotte in the past eight years. Since 2002, Charlotte capital cases that have gone to trial have taken on average 4 years and 4 months between the time of indictment and the time of trial. Mr. Montgomery’s offense was in March 2007. If he goes to trial in October, it will have only been 3 years and 7 months since his case began.
• It is extraordinarily premature to make any judgments about the effectiveness of the RJA at this point. There has not yet been one RJA hearing in the state. All defendants have done in their cases is ask the State to provide information.
Why is it necessary to allow for the use of statistics in claims under the Racial Justice Act?
Statistics are a reliable and essential means of proving racial disparities:
• If people facing the death penalty can show that there are racial disparities in the way our State decides who lives and who dies, and if the prosecution is unable to rebut that showing, then the death penalty cannot stand in those cases.
• It only makes sense that defendants are allowed to present statistics to make their case under RJA. For years, statistics have been relied on to prove claims of racial discrimination in employment and voting rights. There is no reason capital punishment should be any different.
• It is critical that defendants be able to use statistics to prove racial disparities. It is very rare that people involved in capital cases come out and directly admit racial motives. Without statistics, there would be no way to address the racial disparities in the death penalty, and that is unacceptable.
• Currently, a statistical study of North Carolina’s capital punishment system is underway. This study will be even-handed and comprehensive. It is being conducted by out-of-state law professors from Michigan State University. It is being funded by private sources. The study’s researchers have requested, and have been provided, information from North Carolina state agencies.
Will the Racial Justice Act allow a person to use statewide statistics proving racial bias even if discrimination did not play a role in that individual's case?
• If the study shows that the facts of the crime are more significant than the race of the defendant or the victim in predicting who is sentenced to death then the defendant will not be able to avoid the death penalty under the RJA.
Will the use of statistics allow for a quota system on death row?
• The RJA is not a quota system. All people facing the death penalty will be able to present evidence under the RJA. Judges will only set aside death sentences in those cases where the statistical evidence shows that race plays a role in who lives and who dies.
On Thursday, May 13, 2010, Republican legislators led a press conference at the NC General Assembly calling for restrictions on the newly enacted NC Racial Justice Act.
Republican lawmakers were joined by Jennifer Shelton, widow of slain Charlotte-Mecklenburg police office Jeff Shelton. Officer Jeff Shelton and Officer Sean Clark were killed in 2007 after responding to a domestic disturbance in Charlotte.
On Tuesday, May 18, Governor Bev. Perdue met with Jennifer Shelton to learn about her story and concerns regarding the Racial Justice Act.
Click here to read N&O reporting on this meeting.
In response to last Tuesday's news conference, articles regarding the Racial Justice Act have appeared in various media across the state.
From the Charlotte Observer:
Click here to read article by Charlotte NC Attorney James E Ferguson II's "Racial Justice Act says North Carolina should do better" ; Ferguson responds to a previous article appearing in the Charlotte Observer by James D. Pearlman: "Death Penalty Should be Colorblind"
