Legal Commentary

Racial Justice Act Advances in NC

By TChris

Despite statistical evidence demonstrating that the death penalty is more likely to be imposed when a homicide victim is white, the Supreme Court has been unreceptive to the argument that statistics offer sufficient proof that any particular death sentence is racially discriminatory in violation of a defendant's right to equal protection of the law. Statistical evidence that the defendant's race plays a key role in the imposition of the death penalty due to discriminatory attitudes of prosecutors who seek the death penalty or the judges and jurors who impose it is more ambiguous, but even if it were stronger, Supreme Court precedent would seem to foreclose its use to challenge a death sentence.

North Carolina is poised to adopt a law that would allow statistics to play a meaningful role in race-based challenges to death sentences. The Racial Justice Act (pdf) would permit defendants facing death sentences as well as death row inmates to use "statistical evidence or other evidence" to prove "that race was a significant factor in decisions to seek or impose the sentence of death in the county, the prosecutorial district, or the State at large." A defendant who succeeds in making that showing would (if not yet convicted) not be subject to a death sentence, or (if already sentenced to death) have the sentence converted to a life sentence without parole. [more ...]

The North Carolina House approved the bill last week.

The N.C. Senate previously approved a different version of the bill. Before it can become law, the House and Senate must agree on a single version.

A similar law was enacted in Kentucky in 1998. A federal version of the Racial Justice Act passed the House in 1994 but was rejected by the Senate.

While the law appears to permit proof by statistics alone that "death sentences were sought or imposed significantly more frequently upon persons of one race than upon persons of another race," thus establishing "that race was a significant factor in decisions to seek or impose the sentence of death," a defendant would still need to convince a judge that his race was "a significant factor." Some judges will be more receptive to statistical arguments than others, so if the law is enacted, its impact won't be clear for some time.

It's heartening to read about relatives of murder victims who, despite the loss of their loved ones, have expressed their support for the bill. They are keenly aware that (in the recent words of President Obama) "race remains a factor in this society." Race remains a factor in the administration of the death penalty, and the Racial Justice Act recognizes that reality, even if its efficacy as a remedy remains doubtful.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 23, 2009 (boomark / email).