"Governor Vetoes Senate Bill 416," is Governor Bev Perdue veto message. Here's the complete text:
“As long as I am Governor, I will fight to make sure the death penalty stays on the books in North Carolina. But it has to be carried out fairly – free of prejudice.
Three years ago, North Carolina took steps to achieve this result by passing the Racial Justice Act. In response to the enactment of this historic law, our State has rightfully received national acclaim for taking a positive and long overdue step to make sure racism does not infect the way the death penalty is administered.
Last year, Republicans in the General Assembly tried -- and failed -- to take North Carolina backwards by passing a bill that would have undone the Racial Justice Act. This year’s Senate Bill 416 is not a “compromise bill”; it guts the Racial Justice Act and renders it meaningless.
Several months ago, a North Carolina superior court judge ruling on a claim brought under the Racial Justice Act determined that racial discrimination occurred in death penalty trials across the State over a multi-year period. The judge’s findings should trouble everyone who is committed to a justice system based on fairness, integrity, and equal protection under the law. Faced with these findings, the Republican majority in the General Assembly could have tried to strengthen our efforts to fix the flaws in our system. Instead, they chose to turn a blind eye to the problem and eviscerate the Racial Justice Act. Willfully ignoring the pernicious effects of discrimination will not make those problems go away.
It is simply unacceptable for racial prejudice to play a role in the imposition of the death penalty in North Carolina.”
"Perdue vetoes NC death penalty bias law rollback," is the AP report by Emery P. Dalesio, via the Charlotte Observer.
Gov. Beverly Perdue on Thursday vetoed legislation that rolls back a landmark North Carolina law allowing death row inmates to prove their sentence resulted from racial bias.
The Racial Justice Act directs judges to reduce a sentence to life in prison if they find race was a significant factor in a convicted murderer receiving a death sentence or in the composition of jurors hearing a case. Only Kentucky has a similar law.
"As long as I am governor, I will fight to make sure the death penalty stays on the books in North Carolina. But it has to be carried out fairly - free of prejudice," Perdue said in a statement.
The Republican-controlled Legislature passed the bill by margins that would appear to be enough for an override of the Democratic governor's veto. Legislative leaders said they would try to push the legislation into law over Perdue's effort to block it.
And:
The state's district attorneys sought the changes after complaining said the Racial Justice Act clogged up the court system and delayed the carrying out of capital punishment. Nearly all the 150-plus inmates on North Carolina's death row filed for reviews under the law, including white defendants convicted of killing white victims.
Opponents say the changes gut the intent of the law, which was removing racial discrimination from the integrity of the criminal justice system and the fairness of carrying out capital punishment.
In the first case under the law, Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks ruled in April that condemned killer Marcus Robinson's 1991 trial was so tainted by the racially-influenced decisions of prosecutors that he should be removed from death row. Prosecutors plan to appeal the sentencing decision.
Robinson is a black man convicted of killing a white teenager. Robinson was nearly executed in 2007, but a judge blocked it.
Weeks said he found highly reliable a study by two Michigan State University law professors that compared death penalty cases across North Carolina over a 20-year period. Their research said prosecutors eliminated black jurors more than twice as often as white jurors and that a defendant is nearly three times more likely to be sentenced to death if at least one of the victims is white.
"The judge's findings should trouble everyone who is committed to a justice system based on fairness, integrity, and equal protection under the law. Faced with these findings, the Republican majority in the General Assembly could have tried to strengthen our efforts to fix the flaws in our system," said Perdue, a Democrat. "Willfully ignoring the pernicious effects of discrimination will not make those problems go away."
Today's News & Observer of Raleigh reports, "Perdue vetoes rewrite of Racial Justice Act." It's written by Craig Jarvis and John Frank.
Republicans have portrayed the bill as a fix to the Racial Justice Act, but in fact it severely restricts the use of statistics, rendering them useless in most cases. Democrats call it an outright repeal of the law.
This bill was the General Assembly’s second attempt to get rid of the Racial Justice Act, which the state’s prosecutors vehemently oppose. Last year Perdue vetoed the earlier bill. The Senate overrode the veto, and has the votes to do it again last year, but the House couldn’t muster the three-fifths majority needed.
This time, however, the House passed the bill 73-47. It needs only 72 votes to reach the three-fifths needed to override a veto if all members are present.
As with several bills last year, five conservative Democrats broke ranks with their party. But one of them, Rep. Tim Spear of Creswell, has been absent because of family health issues. That means if all members of the House are present, all four of the renegade Democrats would have to vote with Republicans to override the veto.
Rep. Bill Owens, a Democrat from Elizabeth City, said Thursday after the session that he would likely vote to override. “We came up with a fair compromise,” he said of this year’s bill.
Owens said he supports capital punishment, and the true purpose of the Racial Justice Act was to bring executions to a halt.
Another member of the Democratic “gang of five,” Rep. Jim Crawford of Oxford, wouldn’t say how he will vote.
This is Perdue’s 17th veto. Eight of them have been overridden by the Legislature.
Perdue in her veto message said the Racial Justice Act was a historic piece of legislation that received national praise. She called it “a positive and long overdue step to make sure racism does not infect the way the death penalty is administered.
“Last year, Republicans in the General Assembly tried – and failed – to take North Carolina backwards by passing a bill that would have undone the Racial Justice Act,” she said. “This year’s Senate Bill 416 is not a ‘compromise bill’; it guts the Racial Justice Act and renders it meaningless.”
"North Carolina governor vetoes death row bias rollback," is the Reuters post by Wade Rawlins. It's via the Chicago Tribune.
North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue on Thursday vetoed legislation passed by the state's Republican-controlled Legislature to roll back a landmark law allowing death row inmates to use evidence of racial bias to challenge their sentences.
The state's Racial Justice Act, passed in 2009, directs judges to cut a death sentence to life in prison if race is found to be a factor in jury composition or sentencing.
Earlier coverage of the North Carolina Racial Justice Act begins at the link.
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