North Carolina Invalidates Landmark Racial Justice Act

[jade3000]

Source: Dominion of New York

Just two months after North Carolina death row inmate Marcus Robinson made history by having his racially biased death sentence commuted to life in prison, the North Carolina state legislature has passed a bill that would make it virtually impossible for other death row inmates to use racial bias as a justification for doing the same. A veto of “Amend Death Penalty Procedures” bill is likely, but lawmakers appear to have enough votes to override it. If enacted, ADPP will undermine or terminate the nearly 159 racial bias claims that have been filed by North Carolina’s death row inmates since 2009.

“This action is necessary to end the moratorium on the death penalty. The death penalty acts as a deterrent only if it is used. The death penalty will obviously not deter if the state only pretends to have a death penalty and never carries out the sentence,” said House Majority Leader Paul “Skip” Stam, the bill’s most outspoken supporter (and the architect of the infamous Amendment 1) said in a June statement.

Here is how the “Amend Death Penalty Procedures” bill would change the Racial Justice Act (RJA). Race of the victim: RJA allowed for the introduction of evidence that death sentences were more frequently sought or imposed when people of one race were the victims. The ADPP would reject the race of the victim as evidence.

The use of statistics: ...

Read more: http://www.dominionofnewyork.com/2012/06/21/north-carolina-invalidates-landmark-racial-justice-act/#.T-OgjitYvDE

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This is bad news for racial justice advocates & opponents of the death penalty. The Racial Justice Act was one of the strongest approaches in the nation to fighting bias in the death penalty system. I don't have any close friends in NC right now, but I'm sure there are folks there fighting this amendment.

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Not only is racism not dead in America, I don't even think it's improved in my 52 years.

Also, the death penalty just isn't worth it.

Some deserve it, but the price to all of us is just too high.

Especially to those who were wrongly convicted.

[awoke_in_2003]

3. It went underground for a while...

Lurking under the surface. It exploded back into fashion when a black man was elected president. Have you seen those "don't renig in 2012" bumper stickers? They aren't even trying to hide it anymore.

[FiveGoodMen]

5. "They aren't even trying to hide it anymore"

That's the most worrisome thing.

They don't feel the need to hide it.

They think they've won.

They may be right.

[awoke_in_2003]

6. Living down in Texas...

I have to agree. I fear for this country.

[Drunken Irishman]

9. I always roll my eyes at people who say, "we can't be racist, we've got a black president!"

Just because half the country isn't racist doesn't mean the other half isn't, as well...

[greiner3]

19. I noticed;

That after growing up in the 60s and 70s an increase of hatred, bigotry and racism starting with the Reagan years and growing ever since. Way to go Compassionate Conservatism!

[marmar]

2. There's a sizeable number of people who'd love to repeal the 20th century......

...... you know, all those pesky civil rights, women's rights etc etc.

[MADem]

8. You got THAT right!

They'd get carpal tunnel with all the rolling back the clock they have to do....of course, they'd hire us folks at minimum wage to do the manual labor for them, if they could!

[littlewolf]

4. I am against the DP ...

we can not bring folks back if there is a oops ....

I am fine with LWP (life w/o parole) ... if new evidence
comes up ... or it is discovered that people buried evidence
the sentence can be reversed ....

my cuz (who is somewhat conservative) agrees with me
for different reasons ...
if someone has a DP sentence the taxpayers pay the lawyers
for the appeals ....
if the sentence is LWP ... an appeal is on the convicted person

[ProfessionalLeftist]

7. The Tealiban (ie: Republicans) took over the NC legislature

in 2010. First time in 100 years they are in the majority. They are very busy destroying the state a la ALEC. LOTS of racism here...

[queenjane]

20. Racism, fracking, gutting education & the environment

The Thugs are on a feeding frenzy, like someone who's been starved for years and suddenly has access to an all-you-can-eat buffet. If the voters don't turn them out in November, we'll know North Carolina has truly rejoined the Ol' Confederacy.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

21. With ALEC, Koch, KKKarl and Citizens United I'm guessing

...the Taliban will be around for a long time in NC. They were barely blue to begin with. Still a lot of rural, illiterate, low information, racist rednecks in NC. *sigh*

[Bolo Boffin]

10. Does the death penalty act as a deterrent if it is used? n/t

[PSPS]

16. Oh, sure!

Take Texas, for example. They kill their prisoners left and right. I'm sure they have very little capital crime.

... Oh, wait a minute. They actually have one of the highest murder rates in the country.

The fact is that murder rates have always been higher in death-penalty states:

[jade3000]

17. Powerful graph

That's a great statistic and great graph. Thanks for bringing it too my attention. It's good stuff for a debate. I love learning something new everyday.

[Bolo Boffin]

18. It's like running in Wonderland.

All you can do to stay in the same place.

[Faygo Kid]

11. When will I read about ANY GOP-dominated group working on jobs?

Besides tax cuts for the Koch brothers, I mean. Vaginal (oops) ultrasounds, junk like this - Why the hell are they never held accountable?

[dsc]

12. just one more shameful law passed by those bastards

[yardwork]

15. +1

[Judi Lynn]

13. Yet one more leap backwards into deeper depravity by the right-wing.

It will take time, but that monster WILL die.

[surrealAmerican]

14. How can this be constitutional?

... and why are they so keen to pass this if it isn't? Are they really that bloodthirsty?

[Blue_Tires]

22. They just want to remind us just how worthless

Last edited Fri Jun 22, 2012, 02:29 PM - Edit history (1)

the black man's life is in the criminal justice system...Innocent or guilty; they don't care, just as long as one more of us is off the streets, ala Troy Davis

Cases like Marcus Robinson always create instant backlash, because if there is one thing southern so-called "tough-on-crime" conservatives hate, it's the possibility of a black man going free after a wrongful conviction, ala Troy Davis -- It exposes cracks in their well-oiled "machine"

[JohninPA]

23. Congratulations!

On finally prompting me to register after lurking for several years.

How dare you defend Mr. Robinson as innocent?!? He confessed to the crime, there is no question of his guilt. If anyone is racist it is this murderer.

"As soon as they entered the car, Williams put the gun to the back of Erik Tornblom’s neck and forced him to drive to a location that Robinson and Williams ordered.

In his confession, Robinson stated that "the boy kept begging and pleading for us not to hurt him, because he didn’t have any money." After ordering Tornblom out of the car, he was made to lie down. According to Robinson, Williams then shot Tornblom in the face with the shotgun.

Robinson then took Tornblom’s wallet and split the money with Williams. Robinson led police to where he had hidden the shotgun and also showed them where the spent shotgun shell was ejected. Both the gun and the spent shell were recovered by the police. Other evidence tended to show, two days prior to the murder, that Robinson told Williams’ aunt that "he was going to burn him a whitey".

On the morning of the murder, Robinson obtained the shotgun from a friend, who heard Robinson tell Williams that he wanted to rob a QuikStop or "do" a white boy. After the murder, Robinson told a friend that he had robbed a guy the night before and shot him in the head."

I recognize my first post is not in line with the mainstream thinking, but this comment tipped me over the edge. I have refrained from joining in the past because I am not in 100% lock step with some of the opinions here such as the death penalty and the way some forum members treat the military (I am a 100% disabled vet and my daughter is active duty). In any case I am glad to finally be registered, but will more than likely continue to lurk and learn.

Take Care

[Blue_Tires]

24. Thanks! Welcome to DU, JohninPA!

You know this isn't about the actual crime as much as it is the racial bias in sentencing, right? If North Carolina sent as many white people to death row as they did us, the ACLU wouldn't have a case, right?? (the conviction wasn't wrongful, as I forgot to mention the Troy Davis case before posting...I've since edited the post)

Or is this just some bullshit fairytale about all of us being equal in the eyes of the law??

[JohninPA]

26. Ahhh, sorry.

I misread the intent of your post. I thought it was ironic since this was a bias case where a black man killed a white man because of his race. In that case I agree with you. Race should have no bearing upon the guilt or punishment of a criminal. The application of the death (or any) penalty due to the race of the criminal or victim is just wrong.

This is why I tend to lurk and learn rather than post most of the time. I start typing before I think.

[JHB]

25. Welcome to DU. Keep in mind nobody's 100% in lockstep...

...We're the proverbial herd of cats on an anonymous message board. Somebody always has the claws out, but we usually manage to keep major meltdowns to every few years.

[JohninPA]

27. Thanks JHB! (No msg)

[TBF]

28. Your post is one anecdotal case -

versus many years of studies indicating that the death penalty is not applied fairly in regard to race. Here is one fairly recent OP on it:

Death Penalty, Still Racist and Arbitrary
By DAVID R. DOW
Published: July 8, 2011

LAST week was the 35th anniversary of the return of the American death penalty. It remains as racist and as random as ever.

Several years after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, a University of Iowa law professor, David C. Baldus (who died last month), along with two colleagues, published a study examining more than 2,000 homicides that took place in Georgia beginning in 1972. They found that black defendants were 1.7 times more likely to receive the death penalty than white defendants and that murderers of white victims were 4.3 times more likely to be sentenced to death than those who killed blacks.

What became known as the Baldus study was the centerpiece of the Supreme Court’s 1987 decision in McCleskey v. Kemp. That case involved a black man, Warren McCleskey, who was sentenced to die for murdering a white Atlanta police officer. Mr. McCleskey argued that the Baldus study established that his death sentence was tainted by racial bias. In a 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that general patterns of discrimination do not prove that racial discrimination operated in particular cases ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/opinion/09dow.html

[MADem]

29. Welcome to DU.

I am retired military, I have an in-law who is in your shoes with a 100 percent disability, and there are lots of us retired and former military here--a few active duty as well.

You're going to find people who disagree with your views on occasion--that's life. The trick to succeeding here is to not let people who disagree with you goad you into intemperate conduct (even if they step over the line), and to read, re-read, and read again the TOS, which is the touchstone document with regard to any rules/regs.

TOS: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=termsofservice

Also, avoid right wing sources when referencing a news article, and make sure, if you start a thread, that you post it in the right place. Each forum/group has a little blurb that tells you what's "OK" and what isn't in each place.

Again, welcome. Check out the TOS; it will let you know how well you'll fit!