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NC Senate Kills Racial Justice Act; Battle Will Resume in 2009

UPDATE: Legislature Kills Racial Justice Act for 2008. Click to read press release from bill sponsors.

Spurred by the release of three black men from death row, a group of NAACP members, elected officials and released inmates are urging lawmakers to pass the North Carolina Racial Justice Act, which allows for reviews of racial bias in death penalty cases. If defendants can show their convictions or sentences were based on race, they can have their death sentences overturned.

Advocates say 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,  president of the state NAACP. Read full AP article.

• House Bill 1291: Racial Justice Act

Point Nine: Abolish Racially Biased Death Penalty and Mandatory Sentencing Laws; Reform our Prisons

Watch larger version of this video

Stella Adams: Black people, because of our history, have less means to defend ourselves against the criminal justice system.  Jeremy Collins of the Moratorium Coalition, Landon Adams from the Lost Generation Task Force, and Carnell Robinson from the N.C. Black Leadership Caucus will explain.

Jeremy Collins: Did you know that Race is a matter of life and death in the criminal justice system?  Did you know a defendant's odds of receiving a death sentence are 4.4 times higher if the victim is white than if the victim is African-American?   

DID YOU KNOW that 37 people on NC’s death row were represented at trial by lawyers who would not meet today’s minimum standards of qualification?

Did you know only two of the State’s 39 D.A.’s are Black?

Landon Adams:  Did you know that by the time Black men reach 35, 6 out of 10 who had not graduated from high school had spent time in prison?

Did you know Judges are now forced to give fixed prison terms to “habitual” offenders and that 74% of those convicted as habitual felons are African-American?

Did you know in the past 15 years the state’s prison population has grown from about 21,000 in  to about 34,000 and  increase of 62% compared to the 21% growth in the state’s total population growth?

DID YOU Know about half of the prison inmates are non-violent criminals?

DID YOU KNOW that drug-use rates among blacks and whites are similar, almost 70% of the state's drug-crime prisoners last year were black, compared to only 18% who were white?

DID YOU KNOW that that 70% of inmates entering state prisons have not graduated from high school and 40% are functionally illiterate?

DID YOU KNOW that for some young people, the prison system could represent the State’s second chance to meet its constitutional duty to provide adequate and effective education for all its citizens?

CARNELL ROBINSON: Therefore we demand The State Abolish the death penalty.

We Demand the State abolish the disproportionate mandatory sentencing of minorities.

We demand the state Fully fund Alternative Sentencing programs, drug courts, mental health courts, drug rehabilitation programs and other alternatives to incarceration.

We demand a moratorium on prison construction and instead fully fund public education, alternative sentencing programs, and literacy programs that will decrease recidivism.

We demand the Department of Corrections work with the Department of Public Instruction to insure that all able inmates learn to read and write on computers while in prison within two years.

We demand that non-violent and able inmates be immediately placed in full-time education/job training programs.

We demand a joint NAACP/Department of Correction Program, where NAACP branches are formed in every prison to strengthen ties to their families and communities to facilitate re-entry into society.