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Commentary on the RJA Filings

By Steve Hall

Today's Wilmington Star News carries the editorial, "We need to know if race plays a role in sentencing."Regardless of one's view of the death penalty, however, if a state embraces this most extreme form of punishment as an option, it has an obligation to ensure that it is meted out fairly. That's one reason the General Assembly passed the Racial Justice Act, which gave death-row inmates a limited window to ask for a life sentence instead ? if they can convince a judge that racial bias played a role in their sentencing.A jury could be biased against the defendant or in favor of the victim. In North Carolina, an all-black jury is a rarity if it even exists, but all-white juries are common. In some cases being filed under the Racial Justice Act, black defendants were sentenced to death by all-white juries despite the presence of qualified black jurors in the pool...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on August 11, 2010 (boomark / email).