State senators have voted to repeal North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act which had been heralded as one of the country’s most progressive criminal justice reforms in decades. The Act allows for relevant evidence, including statistical evidence, to be used to establish that race was a significant factor in seeking or imposing the death penalty.  The law allows death row inmates to challenge that racial bias may have led to their death sentence. Supporters of the RJA, which prohibits seeking or imposing the death penalty on the basis of race, say that it is not a get of jail pass. For those who prove racial discrimination, their sentence will be commuted to a life without parole.

“We know that if you’re African American in this state, and the victim is white, you’re two and a half times as likely to get the death penalty,” said Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham, who was a primary sponsor of the Racial Justice Act in 2009. He cited a study by Michigan State University researchers who reviewed the 173 death penalty cases in North Carolina from 1990 to 2010.

The House already approved the repeal, an effort backed largely by Republicans. They, along with other detractors, say the law clogged up the courts with hundreds of appeals and it was also an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty.

However supporters argued that it helped insure fairness in the administering of capitol punishment. “Any attempt to repeal or amend the Racial Justice Act is nothing more than an attempt at legislative racism and engaging in race bating politics,” said N.C. NAACP President Rev. William Barber.  This debate and this repeal of the Racial Justice Act prevents the criminal justice system from coming to terms with the racially biased procedure for determining who lives and who dies.

The repeal will now head to Gov. Bev Perdue’s desk for her approval.

-North Carolina Advocates for Justice, www.NCAJ.com