Today's Greensboro News-Record carries the editorial, "Is bias law misused?"
The state's controversial Racial Justice Act, enacted in August to ensure sentencing in capital cases is based on law, not racial bias, may need tweaking in the General Assembly. But not just yet.
The legislature's current "short" session would not allow it the thoughtful debate and consideration it deserves.
A handful of Republican legislators have complained that the law, prompted by the disproportionate number of death penalty cases against black defendants, is being used by attorneys to stall judicial proceedings.
To bolster their argument, the widow of a slain Mecklenburg County police officer, at a news conference last week, said a judge has postponed the death-penalty trial of her husband's accused killer for months to allow his lawyer to gather relevant information under the new law. The officer was white, his alleged assailant black.
And:
Rep. Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, wants to amend the legislation to apply only after a death sentence has been imposed. Doing so, proponents of a revision contend, would discourage frivolous bias claims as well as speed up the justice process.
Tillis told The Charlotte Observer, "It (the law) likely creates as many injustices as it corrects. It delays justice and protracts the grieving and suffering of these families of these victims."
He may be right. But remember, these very same issues were thoroughly debated during the last session, when prosecutors and several sheriffs spoke out strongly against the measure.
Judges must be vigilant that defendants in capital cases don't stray from the law's intent to achieve colorblind justice. It's too early, however, to draw such conclusions.
The law, in practice, should be studied further. Trends should be duly noted. Then lawmakers should decide if major revisions are warranted.
Of course, one way to deal with the thorny problem of sentencing fairness is to eliminate the death penalty altogether. Unfortunately, that's not likely to happen even though capital punishment is being used less in the state and enjoys waning public support.
Charlotte attorney James E. Ferguston II, writes the OpEd, "Racial Justice Act says North Carolina should do better," for today's Charlotte Observer. Here's an excerpt:
Joseph D. Pearlman's recent opinion piece entitled "Death penalty should be colorblind" (May 13 Viewpoint) is misguided and misinformed. Mr. Pearlman suggests that the recently enacted N.C. Racial Justice Act (RJA) "perpetuates a fixation on race to the detriment of fairness and reason." Quite the contrary, the RJA represents a groundbreaking piece of legislation that will, for the first time, directly address racial bias in our criminal justice system.
The need for the RJA was clearly manifested in 1987, when the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged in McCleskey v. Kemp, a death penalty case from Georgia, that race infected our criminal justice system. Despite this recognition, the court ruled that disparities correlated with race were "an inevitable part of our criminal justice system." Ever since McCleskey, it has been nearly impossible to address these undisputed disparities within the criminal justice system, even though the justice who wrote the opinion lived to regret his own words.
Mr. Pearlman falsely asserts that under the RJA, one merely has to be a member of a racial class to avoid the death penalty. Nothing could be further from the truth. Currently underway is an unprecedented comprehensive study of North Carolina's death penalty system that will look at not merely the race of defendants and victims, but will also take into account the many other factors that come into play in these tragic cases.
If that study shows that certain defendants received the death penalty and others did not merely because their cases were more aggravated than others, then any claim under the RJA - in other words, any claim that race had something to do with it - will fail. If, on the other hand, the data show that certain defendants have been sentenced to death, not because their cases were more heinous, but because race played a significant factor, then the RJA says that those death sentences cannot stand. Any system that allows race to play a factor in deciding who lives and who dies needs reform, and I am quite certain that Mr. Pearlman would agree.
Raleigh's News & Observer reports, "Perdue hears out widow on race law," by Mark Johnson.
Gov. Bev Perdue met Tuesday with Jennifer Shelton, widow of a slain Charlotte police officer and an advocate for overhauling the Racial Justice Act.
"She seemed to listen to everything I had to say and take it into account," Shelton said afterward, adding that Perdue "seemed a little surprised that [the law] has been delaying trials."
Shelton said she left with the impression that Perdue, a Democrat, wants to take a look at how the law is working. Shelton spoke at a news conference last week organized by Republican lawmakers pushing to scale back the new law. They complained that the Racial Justice Act, passed last year, is being used by accused killers, including white defendants, to delay their trials.
And:
"The governor clearly admired Jennifer's strength and expressed sincere sorrow at what she's going through," said Chrissy Pearson, Perdue's communications director and the wife of a Cary police officer. She attended the meeting.
Perdue "goes straight to the source about issues that are important to her or concern her," Pearson said. "In this case, Ms. Shelton wanted to share her personal story, and the governor was more than happy to welcome her to the Capitol."
The law, when it passed last year, was portrayed as a safeguard against the death penalty being disproportionately imposed against black defendants. Under the law, murder suspects may present evidence of racial bias, either at trial or after being sentenced to death.
Under the new law, judges can consider statistical evidence that suggests race was a key factor in prosecutors' decision to seek - or a court's decision to impose - the death penalty on a disproportionate number of people from a racial group. A judge could prohibit prosecutors from seeking a death sentence or overturn a death sentence on appeal and impose life without parole.
Earlier coverage of the RJA begins here; related posts in the race index.
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