Winston-Salem Journal

The Racial Justice Act, which Gov. Bev Perdue signed into law Tuesday, could live up to its lofty name if prosecutors put aside their criticisms of it and work with police and defense attorneys to curb the bias it aims to correct.

The act, pushed by Reps. Larry Womble and Earline Parmon of Forsyth County, will allow defendants to use statistics and other evidence to argue that there is racial bias in the administration of the death penalty. Judges who find significant bias can stop district attorneys from seeking a death penalty or, after a trial, convert a death sentence to life in prison without parole.

In this state, there’s compelling evidence that bias has landed blacks on death row. For example, about 54 percent of the inmates on North Carolina’s death row are black. Blacks make up only about 22 percent of the statewide population.

But proving bias will be hard. The argument behind the Racial Justice Act was rejected by the Supreme Court in 1987. Only one other state, Kentucky, has a version of the act.

Bias can be unintentional and subconscious in the courtroom, just as it can be anywhere else. It can also be subtle, and as tied to socioeconomics as to race. For example, a prosecutor’s language could signal to jurors that the defendant is from a lower socioeconomic class.

Most prosecutors, however, aren’t prejudiced, at least in the courtroom. Before the Racial Justice Act passed, some said they resented its implication that they are racist. So it’s only natural that some might be inclined to be defensive as the act takes effect.

They’ve expressed concern about the work it will create for them, especially with appeals from those already on death row. But workloads should not take precedence when a defendant’s life and the integrity of our justice system are at stake. North Carolina’s death penalty is under an unofficial moratorium as officials try to decide whether doctors should participate in executions, but it most certainly will resume.

Prosecutors will be able to counter defense arguments about bias, and we trust that judges will weigh these cases carefully. These decisions, and the arguments that precede them, should be based on logic, not on politics or the inflammatory rhetoric that characterizes so much talk about race in this country.

And to save themselves the work of future appeals, judges, prosecutors, police and defense attorneys should begin work now to reduce or eliminate bias in pending and present cases.
Piggott’s plea.

Now that Dan Piggott’s sexual assault case is over, officials with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools system should make sure that teachers and students feel free to report abuse to school officials.

Piggott, the state school principal of the year for 1999, pleaded guilty in Forsyth County District Court Tuesday to two misdemeanor counts of sexual assault on a female in connection with allegations made in 2007 that he groped and fondled two women who worked at Atkins High School when he was the principal there.

Judge William Reingold sentenced Piggott to 24 months of supervised probation and 150 hours of community service, and ordered him to pay a $500 fine and a $200 community-service fee. Considering that the convictions were misdemeanors, Piggott has long since been fired from his job and his career is finished, that’s sufficient punishment.

What’s troubling about the case is the intimidation that Piggott apparently wielded. One of the victims told sheriff’s deputies that she feared she’d lose her job by reporting the assault. The other said that she didn’t report the assault when it happened because Piggott implied that school administrators would protect him and that he could retaliate against her.

School Superintendant Don Martin said Thursday that he doesn’t know what Piggott said, but he certainly didn’t receive any protection. Martin said that students and teachers have long been encouraged to come forward if they’ve been abused. Students are shown a video. “We don’t want anybody to feel uncomfortable for any reason,” he said.

Principals are dominant figures in schools, as Forsyth District Attorney Tom Keith said this week, and that makes employees fearful of reprisals if they come forward.

Complaints of such abuse must be weighed carefully to safeguard the rights of the accused and the accuser. But students and teachers should know that if their accusations are valid, they will be acted upon promptly.

No one should have to live in fear in a hostile work environment.

Play ball already.

Everything seems slower in August – especially progress on the downtown baseball stadium.
The city’s $15.7-million infusion, approved by the council in June, won’t start flowing until the financing is put in place later this month. Full-scale construction work won’t resume until then.
There was a little action on the site this week. The citizens’ stadium oversight committee toured it Thursday, and some members said they were impressed. “I think Winston-Salem, we’re going to be proud of this stadium once it’s built,” said Gordon Slade, one of the members.

Construction workers were onsite Tuesday, not to work on the actual stadium, but to control erosion. Rains have washed some of the ground away, the Journal’s Laura Graff reported.

That’s sure to spark another round of mud-pit jokes and jeers from the critics. The noise of construction should soon drown them out.

We’re waiting.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – Gov. Perdue today signed Senate Bill 461, the North Carolina Racial Justice Act, which permits defendants and inmates to challenge death sentences by presenting statistical evidence racial bias.

The bill was sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Floyd McKissik (D-Durham) and in the House by Rep. Larry Womble (D-Forsyth), Rep. Earline Parmon (D-Forsyth), Rep. Paul Luebke (D-Durham) and Rep Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford).

“I have always been a supporter of death penalty, but I have always believed it must be carried out fairly,” said Perdue. “The Racial Justice Act ensures that when North Carolina hands down our state’s harshest punishment to our most heinous criminals – the decision is based on the facts and the law, not racial prejudice.”

The Racial Justice Act will allow inmates on death row and persons charged with a capital crime to present a judge with evidence that shows race was a significant factor that led to the imposition of the death sentence. If the judge agrees with the evidence, the death sentence can be overturned to life in prison without possibility of parole.

“This is extremely significant legislation that will help to assure us that when the death penalty is used as an ultimate punishment that the decision is free of racial biases and prejudices,” said Sen. McKissick.

“This is a very auspicious and also historic occasion for the state of North Carolina.  This is about justice for our state, and North Carolina is leading the nation in this particular area,” said Rep. Womble. “I want to thank all of the sponsors, supporters and the people of North Carolina.  We want the world to know that we will be fair and objective in this area.  Thanks for the support of the governor and the Speaker of the House – the passage of this bill would not have been possible without their help.”

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Bev Perdue on Tuesday will sign Senate Bill 461, the North Carolina Racial Justice Act, which prohibits the death penalty to be imposed on the basis of race.  It allows for courts to consider race as a factor in cases involving the seeking or imposing of  the death penalty.

The signing will take place at the Old House Chamber in the State Capitol Building at 11 a.m.

RALEIGH, N.C. – The General Assembly gave final approval Wednesday to making North Carolina the second state in the country that allows statistical evidence to establish racial bias as behind prosecutors seeking or jurors rendering the death penalty.

The Senate voted 25-18 for a measure the NAACP and other advocates said was needed in a state that in less than three years has released three black men from prison who had been on death row. If Gov. Beverly Perdue signs the bill into law, North Carolina would join Kentucky with legislation supporters called the Racial Justice Act.

“The need for this is critical and self-evident,” Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham, the bill’s primary sponsor.

In one case cited by supporters, then-Gov. Mike Easley commuted the death sentence of Robert Bacon Jr. to life in prison in 2001. An all-white jury had sentenced him to death for stabbing his lover’s husband to death. The woman, who is white and who lured her husband to the spot where he was killed, avoided a death sentence and has since been paroled.

The measure would allow judges to consider whether statistical data show race was a key factor in putting a defendant on trial for his life or receiving a death penalty. A judge who agrees with the evidence could limit a sentence to life in prison without parole.

District attorneys, sheriffs and victims advocates said the measure would make death penalty prosecutions too difficult. North Carolina has not had an execution in nearly three years.

For murder victims and their families, the bill “represents something … that will end up reopening a lot of old wounds that were still waiting for complete closure,” said Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham. “This also represents a significant departure from the jurisprudence that we have seen in
North Carolina and the United States that says cases are to be decided by the facts of the case.”

Since the state’s last execution in August 2006, the number of prosecutors winning death penalty convictions has nearly come to a halt and public support for executions has waned.

Just one convict was sent to death row last year and five people have been acquitted of the charges that initially placed them on death row since 2000. Of the 59 capital convicts who had their cases retried this decade, only two were again sentenced to death.

A November 2005 poll from Elon University found that 64 percent of the state’s adults supported capital punishment. The same poll found this March that 58 percent supported the death penalty while 28 percent opposed it. Less than half said this year that the death penalty was the most appropriate punishment for first-degree murder.

The North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys opposed the legislation. Forsyth County District Attorney Thomas Keith said lawmakers did not discuss that any local Superior Count judge’s ruling finding a history of racial discrimination could lead other judges to apply the precedent statewide.

“The ultimate goal is to give an additional protection,” for convicted murderers, Keith said.

Death row defendants would have one year to file a claim of racial bias in their death sentence. Keith said he feared some convicted killers could go from death row to being released on parole.

Almost half of the 163 killers on death row were sentenced for murders committed before October 1994, when the current sentencing system was put into place and mandatory life sentences became an option. If their sentences were reduced to life, those sentenced under the previous sentencing scheme could be considered for parole after serving 20 years, Keith said.

He cited the case of Bonnie Sue Clark, Bacon’s accomplice in the slaying of Clark’s husband. She was paroled last week after serving nearly 22 years of her life sentence.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – People on North Carolina’s death row or facing capital murder trials would have a new venue to argue racial bias before a judge in a bill that cleared the House.

The House agreed 61-54 Wednesday to the Racial Justice Act. The margin was similar to a vote on Tuesday. The measure now returns to the Senate, which already has approved a version of the bill.

The legislation would allow defendants to attempt to prove race was a significant factor in a death sentence or in a prosecutor seeking the death penalty. A judge who agrees could limit a sentence to life in prison without parole.

Bill supporters say the measure is about fairness. Opponents say it won’t work and would discourage prosecutors from seeking capital punishment.

RALEIGH, N.C. – The House has narrowly agreed to a bill its supporters say would ensure that people are removed from North Carolina’s death row if race was a factor in putting them there.

House members gave initial approval Tuesday to legislation that would also apply to situations where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in a pending capital murder case.

The defendant could use data or other evidence from a county, prosecutorial district or nearby area to attempt to prove that race was a significant factor in the decisions.

Republicans and the state’s district attorneys are opposed to the bill, saying it will further delay carrying out pending executions.

A final House vote could come Wednesday. The Senate has passed a version of the bill.

RALEIGH, N.C. — As the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People convenes this week in New York for its 100th Anniversary, President and CEO Benjamin Jealous joins NC NAACP President and National Board Member Rev. Dr. William Barber in calling on the NC General Assembly to pass the NC Racial Justice Act.

“Mr. Jealous just spoke directly today in his keynote speech about the NAACP’s number one issue, racial discrimination in the criminal justice system, and called on North Carolina to pass the Racial Justice Act,” said Rev. Barber, who, along with a large bi-partisan coalition of individuals and organizations has pushed hard for the passage of the bill that would address racial bias in death penalty cases.

“With full support from Mr. Jealous, I am right now raising the issue of the NC Racial Justice Act with over 5000 delegates here in New York,” said Rev. Barber.

“And North Carolinians seem to agree with our endorsement of the Racial Justice Act – a statewide poll conducted last week by Public Policy Polling found that 67% of NC voters believe capital defendants should be able to present evidence of bias, including statistical evidence, in court.”

“The numbers and the stories don’t lie,” said Mr. Jealous.  “We continue to be plagued with racial bias in our criminal justice systems across the country.  This week North Carolina has the opportunity to take an historical, righteous step towards justice by passing the Racial Justice Act.”

“It is time – it is past time — that North Carolina gets this right,” added Rev. Barber. “We’ve seen far too many cases of racial injustice in recent days.  We must enact a clean Racial Justice Act, one with statewide statistics and without inappropriate and irrelevant amendments.”

RALEIGH, NC – Today the Historic Thousands on Jones Street Coalition and the NC Coalition for a Moratorium – with support from recently polled voters – called on North Carolina legislators to pass a clean version of the NC Racial Justice Act, free of amendments that would restart executions before the courts can sort out important legal questions.

“Any attempt by legislators to use the Racial Justice Act – a bill that simply allows defendants facing the death penalty to present evidence of racial bias in their cases – as a pretext to restart executions, is unconscionable,” said NC-NAACP President Rev. William Barber.

A poll conducted last week in Mecklenburg and Pitt Counties by Public Policy Polling shows overwhelming support for the Racial Justice Act, as well as strong support for a bill that exempts people with severe mental illness from the death penalty.  Polling in these counties provides a bellwether as to opinions of voters in other parts of the state; Mecklenburg County is North Carolina’s largest, urban county, located in the western part of the state, and Pitt is a large rural county in the east.

• 76% of Mecklenburg County voters said that capital defendants should be able to present evidence, including statistical evidence, of racial bias to the court
• 69% of Pitt County voters said the same
• 63% of Mecklenburg County voters said they did not support the death penalty for people who were seriously mentally ill at the time of the crime
• 58% of Pitt County voters said the same

“The poll reflects what we already know,” said Charmaine Fuller, Executive Director of the Carolina Justice Policy Center.”  “North Carolinians support efforts to fight racism in our capital punishment system.  They also believe that people who suffer from severe mental illness should not be subjected to the ultimate punishment.”

While executions have been on hold, three African-American death row inmates were exonerated in North Carolina.  In all of the cases, at least one of the victims was white.  One of them had an all-white jury.  A UNC study found that a defendant’s odds of getting the death penalty increase by 3.5 times if the victim was white.

“The legislature need not interfere with the courts,” said NC Coalition for a Moratorium Campaign Coordinator Jeremy Collins. “Before executions are restarted, the legislature must address a broken death penalty system that risks executing innocent and severely mentally ill people, and one that uses race as a deciding factor in whether someone lives or dies,” added Collins.  “All we are asking is that efforts to reduce wrongful executions be considered and passed on their own merits.”

RALEIGH, N.C. – An effort to allow North Carolina prisoners to challenge their death sentences because of racial bias has received a big boost with passage by a Senate committee.

A Senate judiciary committee approved the North Carolina Racial Justice Act on Tuesday night, hours after a House panel narrowly passed a nearly identical bill.
 
The bill would allow those convicted of capital murder to argue race played a role in their death sentence or a prosecutor’s decision to seek the death penalty. A judge could vacate the death sentence or order that capital punishment not be sought.

The House approved a similar bill two years ago, but the Senate never considered it before the two-year session ended.
 
The next stop for both bills would be the House or Senate floor.