http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2009 … week/news/A black defendant. A white victim. For Stafford, race wasn't an issue. But for critics of the death penalty, it can't be ignored.
That's the thinking behind a bill under consideration in the state legislature that could change the way the death penalty is applied in North Carolina. The bill, known as the Racial Justice Act, would allow judges to throw out the death penalty in a specific case if they found a trend indicating racial bias in other cases. The bill is up for a key vote in the N.C. House this week.
Supporters say the bill is needed to address a legacy of racial disparities in how the death penalty is applied, both nationwide and in North Carolina. In their view, no single death-penalty case can be fairly evaluated without considering the historical relationship of race and capital punishment.
"You can't just look at an individual case, because each capital case is a microcosm of the entire criminal-justice system," Mark Rabil, a capital defender in Winston-Salem, said.
As a legal matter, the argument behind the Racial Justice Act is controversial. It was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987. And it's rejected by most prosecutors, who insist that cases should be decided only on their own facts, without reference to historical patterns.
The question now before state legislators is, in the narrowest sense, a strict policy question. But it's also fraught with issues of politics, race, and life and death. The question boils down to this: In a state that uses capital punishment, should a statistical pattern of racial disparities be enough to preclude the use of the death penalty against someone accused of first-degree murder?
So if this is passed a black guy that robbed and killed a white guy could very well not be executed simply because he is black?
Does this sound utterly insane to anyone else?
