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More on North Carolina's Racial Justice Act

By Steve Hall

Today's Wall Street Journal reports, "Death Penalty Goes on Trial in North Carolina," by Nathan Koppel. Kenneth Bernard Rouse was sentenced to death after a jury found him guilty in 1992 of fatally stabbing 63-year-old Hazel Colleen Broadway. Police found her body in a North Carolina convenience store, the knife still in her neck.Nearly two decades later, Mr. Rouse, now 47, sits on North Carolina's death row, after filing unsuccessful appeals.But a new, controversial state law might change that. Last year, North Carolina enacted what's known as the Racial Justice Act, requiring judges to let any inmate off death row if the judge finds that race was a "significant factor" in the death sentence.About 95% of the state's death-row population, or 152 inmates including Mr...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on September 20, 2010 (boomark / email).