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An effort to use charging disparity to fend off death penalty in North Carolina

By Douglas A. Berman

This story from North Carolina reports on a notable effort by capital defense attorneys to attack the way in which local prosecutors use their charging discretion in capital cases.  Here are excerpts from the article: A couple of defense lawyers are using a local death penalty study that mirrors the racial disparities highlighted in national analyses to try and keep their client from being prosecuted capitally. An analysis of 177 murder cases over five years shows that prosecutors are six times more likely in Durham, one of the most diverse counties in the state, to seek capital punishment when a black suspect has been accused of killing a white person compared with when the victim is black. Jay Ferguson and Lisa Williams, two Durham lawyers, plan to use the analysis in their defense of Keith Kidwell, a 24-year-old black man who has spent the past four years in jail awaiting trial on charges that he murdered Crayton Nelms, a white Kangaroo convenience store clerk found beaten to death at work in February 2005...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).