Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Will North Carolina's death penalty get killed by its Racial Justice Act?

By Douglas A. Berman

The question in the title of this post is inspired by this effective new piece in the Wall Street Journal titled "Death Penalty Goes on Trial in North Carolina." Here are excerpts: Last year, North Carolina enacted what's known as the Racial Justice Act, requiring judges to let any inmate off death row if the judge finds that race was a "significant factor" in the death sentence. About 95% of the state's death-row population, or 152 inmates ..., filed bias claims by the August deadline, according to the North Carolina attorney general's office. The law also allows future capital-murder defendants to claim racial bias. Convicts whose petitions were successful would instead face life sentences, with no chance of parole. North Carolina's new law is among the most hotly debated responses to recent criticism of the death penalty...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 20, 2010 (boomark / email).