Racial Justice Act gets initial OK in N.C. House

By Gary D. Robertson

RALEIGH, N.C.

The House gave tentative approval Tuesday to creating a legal procedure its supporters argue would ensure people are removed from North Carolina's death row if race was a factor in putting them there.

The legislation, endorsed by a 61-55 vote, would allow defendants to use data or other evidence from a prosecutorial district, county or adjoining area to try to prove that race was a significant factor in receiving a death sentence.

If a judge agreed with the defendant, even after prosecutors put on evidence, the defendant would get life in prison without parole.

The bill also could be applied as a pretrial hearing after a prosecutor decided to seek the death penalty in a capital murder case. Kentucky is the only other state with a similar procedure as contained in the measure, according to bill supporters.

"This is not a free pass to commit murder," said Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth, one of the chief sponsors of the Racial Justice Act. "It does not allow lawyers to simply present a table with some kind of stats on it to get their clients off the hook."

A final House vote could come Wednesday. Then it would then return to the Senate, where it could have a difficult time gaining approval and could require a compromise. That's because the House version left out a section of the Senate bill, approved in May, designed to help remove obstacles that have effectively halted executions for two years. Senate leaders said the provision was the only way that the Racial Justice Act could pass the chamber.

The House, which approved a somewhat similar Racial Justice Act in 2007, agreed Tuesday to the measure after an intense 2½-hour discussion on capital punishment and whether lingering racism in some areas of society has made its way into the criminal justice system.

Lawmakers, all of them Democrats, cited situations in which condemned prisoners have been removed from death row or lengthy prison terms as proof that the system can create inequitable outcomes.

Former death-row inmate Robert Bacon received clemency in 2001 from then-Gov. Mike Easley after an all-white jury sentenced the black defendant to death while allowing a white co-defendant to avoid a death sentence.

"Race matters then and it matters today," said Rep. Alma Adams, D-Guilford. "Discrimination and racism (are) still around. Whether we like it or not, race matters."

Republicans and the state district attorneys' group opposed the bill, saying it will further delay pending executions even though capital punishment hasn't been carried out in North Carolina since 2006.

They argue it could cost millions of dollars in taxpayer money because they say all the 163 death row inmates — regardless of race — could potentially file motions seeking relief through the act. It could further clog appeals in which defendants already are alleging racial bias.

Rep. David Guice, R-Transylvania, said the "system of protections is in place for those accused of crimes and specifically those convicted of a crime and sentenced to death. This intricate system of checks and balances involves both pretrial and posttrial actions."

A motion by Rep. Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, to send the bill to a committee for further work deadlocked 58-58 and was defeated.

The debate became heated when Rep. Dale Folwell, R-Forsyth, mentioned victims of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland as he asserted that North Carolina murder victims were being forgotten during the debate.

Folwell held up a pair of shoes — such as those of Auschwitz victims at a museum he visited — to remind lawmakers "of the people who wore them and the people whose promise was taken away from them by murderers and rapists in North Carolina."

Rep. Jennifer Weiss, D-Wake, said it was "vile" that Folwell would use the Auschwitz reference to score political points. Most people who died at the camp, operated by the Nazis during World War II, were Jews.

"It is so disturbing to me to have that atrocity brought up on the floor in some way to cast aspersions on those of us who are trying to ensure the integrity of this criminal justice system," said Weiss, who is Jewish. "Everyone in this body cares about victims."

Folwell later defended his comments. The shoes he held up had belonged to his son, who died in 1999 when a motorist struck him as he was trying to get on a school bus.

Four Democrats joined all Republicans present in voting against the bill.