NC Racial Justice Act: The Facts
Frequently Asked Questions
- Will murderers be paroled?
No, under the new law, no murderers will be set free – the law explicitly states that if a death row inmate gets relief, he will be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
- Can race be a factor in wrongful convictions?
Yes. Since a court-imposed suspension of executions went into effect in 2007, three North Carolina death row inmates have been exonerated. All three men are African-American. In all of the cases, at least one of the victims was white. One defendant was sentenced to death by an all-white jury.
Pictured Above: Levon "Bo" Jones, Jonathan Hoffman, Edward Chapman, and Darryl Hunt
These men served a combined total of 61 years for crimes they did not commit. Jones, Hoffman, and Chapman were on NC'd death row; all three were exonerated between December 2007 and May 2008. Hunt was exonerated in 2004, after serving 18 years for a murder and rape he did not commit.
- Does the public support the Racial Justice Act?
Yes. The Racial Justice Act was supported by Republicans and Democrats, and by supporters and opponents of the death penalty.
According to a statewide poll conducted July 6-7, 2009, by Public Policy Polling, a majority of North Carolina voters support the intent of this new law:
If a defendant can prove that the death penalty
was sought or obtained in his case because of
racial bias, do you think he should be able to
present that evidence of bias, including
statistical evidence, to the court? If yes, press
1. If no, press 2.
Yes ................................................................. 67%
No................................................................... 33%
- Should we be second-guessing jurors?
We should not execute anyone whose death sentence was a product of race discrimination, whether the discrimination was exercised by prosecutors or by jurors. The first priority of our criminal justice system should be ensuring justice and fairness, not upholding verdicts tainted by racial discrimination.
Statistics are used routinely and appropriately in housing and employment discrimination cases, and should likewise be relevant in cases of life or death.
Prosecutors will have an opportunity to rebut statistical evidence showing with their own evidence that race was not a factor in their decisions.
- Does that mean we will have a quota system?
No. The Act prohibits intentional discrimination based on the race of the defendant or the victim. It does not require mathematical precision in death-sentencing rates or in the rates at which prosecutors seek death sentences.
Under the Act, racial disparities would be permitted if they can be explained by differences in non-racial factors -- for example, the defendant’s prior record or the number of victims.
- Why are defense attorneys asking prosecutors to provide information about their cases to help prove claims under the Racial Justice Act?
Prosecutors alone possess information necessary to explain their decision about whether to pursue the death penalty in a particular case. Only prosecutors can say why they decided to seek the death penalty. Without this information, the courts can only speculate why a prosecutor decided to try a case capitally or not. This type of request for information is routine in court cases.
- Won’t defense requests for information from district attorneys cost too much money and take too much time?
Prosecutors are being asked to cooperate with an independent state-wide study under the Racial Justice Act. Their cooperation would save everyone time and expense. So far, prosecutors have declined to provide information requested. If prosecutors continue to resist these requests, they will drive up the cost by forcing defense counsel to seek the same, necessary, information from less centralized sources.