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Editorial Reaction to the North Carolina Race Study

By Steve Hall

Today's Fayetteville Observer carries the editorial, "Justice - Death penalty data show need for Racial Justice Act."The proof is in the killing, and a newly released study of death sentences in North Carolina proves that our year-old Racial Justice Act was not only well-motivated, but urgently needed.This doesn't mean that every death sentence is a miscarriage of justice. It does mean that we need the brake on human passions that the act provides.The study, covering death sentences from 1980 through 2007, was conducted by researchers from the University of Colorado in Boulder and the Northeastern University school of criminology and criminal justice in Boston. They examined more than 15,000 homicides.Unlike earlier findings that blacks convicted of capital crimes are more likely to be executed than whites convicted of capital crimes, this one focused on victims...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on July 26, 2010 (boomark / email).