"Death-Penalty Racial Law Is Tested," is Ashby Jones' report for the Wall Street Journal.
The fate of one death-row inmate in North Carolina—and possibly dozens more—is now in the hands of a judge following a 2½-week hearing that for the first time tests a law that would let an inmate off death row if race is found to have been a "significant factor" in the sentence.
In a crowded courtroom here, Cumberland County Judge Gregory A. Weeks heard closing arguments Wednesday on a case involving the death sentence of Marcus Reymond Robinson, a black man convicted in 1994 of murdering a 17-year-old white man during a robbery.
Judge Weeks's challenge: to answer the nebulous question of whether race likely played an improper role in jury selection on capital cases around the time of Mr. Robinson's trial.
The decision, which should come in the next few weeks, will likely set a precedent for what happens with the state's other death-row inmates. Nearly all of North Carolina's 157 death-row inmates, including roughly 60 white inmates, have challenged their death sentences on racial-bias grounds.
And:
On its face, the law doesn't require a defendant to prove that bias took place in his case specifically. An inmate need only prove, with statistics, that race weighed heavily in prosecutors' and jurors' decisions concerning the death penalty "in the county, the prosecutorial district, the judicial division, or the State at the time the death sentence was sought or imposed."
The only other state with a similar law is Kentucky, but defense lawyers there haven't used it much because they must show strong evidence of discrimination in an individual case and are barred from basing claims solely on statistics.
"Racial Justice Act case hearing ends," by Anne Blythe in Raleigh's News & Observer.
A hearing in the first Racial Justice Act case ended with a flourish of historic references Wednesday as prosecutors and defense lawyers spoke of Athenian justice, race relations in the armed forces and famous civil rights cases in their closing arguments.
But as Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks mulls his ruling, he may spend more time considering statistics and numbers than arguments.
On Wednesday, after two and a half weeks of testimony in Fayetteville from statisticians, researchers, prosecutors and District Court judges, the closing arguments concluded the hearing on a request for sentencing relief from Marcus Reymond Robinson, a death row inmate.
And:
The hearing included testimony from dueling statisticians and researchers.
Defense attorneys used a sweeping study of capital cases in North Carolina done by Michigan State University law school researchers to bolster their claims.
That study found that qualified black jurors - those not released for cause, such as opposition to the death penalty - were struck by prosecutors at nearly twice the rate as qualified white jurors. In Cumberland County, they were struck at 2.6 times the rate, according to the researchers.
Prosecutors called prosecutors, judges and a political scientist to bolster their claims that race is not among their considerations when weighing whether to strike a potential juror.
"First Racial Justice Act hearing concludes in Fayetteville," by Paul Woolverton in the Fayetteville Observer.
Researchers at Michigan State University studied peremptory challenges by prosecutors in 173 death penalty trials from 1990 to 2010 and concluded prosecutors peremptorily struck black potential jurors more than twice the rate as they struck non-black jurors.
In Robinson's trial, the rate for blacks was 3.5 times that of non-blacks.
Thompson and Colyer contend that there are legitimate, non-race-based reasons for the jury strikes. They also say the Michigan State study had severe flaws and the researchers were not qualified to assess jury selection in capital murder trials.
Robinson's lawyers say the reasons given to strike a black juror often are pretextual excuses to mask racial bias. And, regardless, they said, even when the non-racial reasons are accounted for, blacks were still struck at twice the rate as whites across the state.
"If you're black, you're much less acceptable to the state," said Durham lawyer Jay Ferguson for Robinson.
Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks, the presiding judge, said he would give the lawyers four to five weeks to submit legal briefs and he will make a ruling sometime later.
The Greenville Reflector carries the AP filing, "Closing arguments conclude in Racial Justice case."
"We hope that what this case will do, as the first case of the Racial Justice Act, is to move us to a point where we do open up that process, and where we do eliminate the harm that's done to the system itself by limiting and excluding folks from serving on a jury as a result of race," said lawyer James Ferguson II of Charlotte on behalf of Robinson.
Prosecutor Cal Colyer had to pause a few times during his presentation to remain composed.
"''The goal may be admirable with respect to this legislation, but it is an insult to the prosecutors, to the judges, and yes, even to the defense attorneys in this case," Colyer said.
The Fayetteville Observer provided Daily Coverage of the RJA hearing; all written by Paul Woolverton. Here are links to the daily reports:
- Retired statistics professor disputes prosecution's testimony (2/15)
- Political scientist says juror ideology, not racism, can explain study's results (2/14)
- Forsyth County lawyers disagree on Racial Justice Act's effect (2/12)
- Defense tries to discredit testimony of state expert witness (2/11)
- Prosecution statistician says white and black jurors seated at same rate (2/10)
- Lawyers debate statistic expert's testimony in Racial Justice Act hearing (2/9)
- Ruling blocks judge's answer in Racial Justice Act hearing (2/8)
- Ex-Cumberland County prosecutor John Dickson disputes racial bias claims (2/8)
Earlier coverage of the North Carolina RJA hearing begins at the link. Related posts are in the race index.
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