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NC Gov official signs new racial justice act concerning capital prosecutions

By Douglas A. Berman

The first sentence of this local article provides the big capital punishment news from North Carolina today: "North Carolina now allows challenges to the death penalty based on race."  Here's more from the start of the new report: Gov. Bev Purdue signed the N.C. Racial Justice Act Tuesday, a victory for supporters who contend its passage is the first step in closing racial disparities in how capital punishment is applied, especially in the South where the number of condemned inmates tends to be higher. The law allows defendants to use statistical data to argue racial bias. ?I have always been a supporter of death penalty, but I have always believed it must be carried out fairly,? Perdue at the sigining. ?The Racial Justice Act ensures that when North Carolina hands down our state?s harshest punishment to our most heinous criminals ? the decision is based on the facts and the law, not racial prejudice...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on August 11, 2009 (boomark / email).