Advocates make case for Racial Justice Act

RALEIGH -- Spurred by the recent release of three black men from death row, judicial reform advocates called on lawmakers Tuesday to give defendants in capital murder cases the right to challenge their prosecution on racial bias grounds.

The North Carolina Racial Justice Act has sat dormant in a Senate committee since the House voted 68-51 to approve the measure last year. The proposal would allow defendants in death penalty cases to use statistics to claim their conviction or sentence was driven by race.

The state's district attorneys oppose the measure, arguing it could detract from the merits of an individual case. But advocates said the bill is desperately needed to ensure innocent people are not sent to death.

"You can overturn a wrongful conviction, but you can't unpack a wrong grave," said the Rev. William Barber, the president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Since December 2007, three black men -- Jonathan Hoffman, Glen Edward Chapman and Levon Jones -- have been released from North Carolina's death row. They were among those lobbying lawmakers Tuesday at the Legislative Building.

The law would require defendants to "state with particularity" how race played a role in either the prosecution's decision to press charges or to seek the death penalty. The plan would apply retroactively, so inmates currently on death row could make such arguments.

The state's prosecutors said only the merits of an individual case -- and not a defendant's race -- should be considered during a capital prosecution.

"No case is the same. None are the same. There are different facts," said Pitt County District Attorney Clark Everett. "The decision to prosecute someone capitally should be based on the facts of the case and the merits of the case, not what happened in other counties."

Everett, who serves as the president of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, said he fears the legislation will prompt a "battle of statisticians," where defense attorneys would hire such specialists and make arguments on racial grounds, regardless of the merits of the claims.

"Statistics can be used to show most anything," Everett said.

Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand of Fayetteville said Tuesday that he didn't know whether the chamber would vote on the proposal this year.