North Carolina鈥檚 Highest Court Will Hear Landmark Death Penalty Cases Involving Racial Bias

March 2, 2018 2:45 pm

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DURHAM, N.C.The North Carolina Supreme Court agreed today to hear cases that will decide whether three defendants of color should remain on death row despite documented evidence of racial bias in their cases.

The court accepted the cases of Marcus Robinson, Quintel Augustine, and Christina Walters, the first people to prove under the North Carolina Racial Justice Act that racial discrimination helped secure their death sentences and to have their sentences reduced to life without parole. That decision was later overturned, and the four were returned to death row.

鈥淲e are encouraged by the North Carolina Supreme Court鈥檚 decision to hear these cases and review the claims of widespread racial bias in capital cases,鈥 said Cassandra Stubbs, director of the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 Capital Punishment Project and one of the attorneys representing Marcus Robinson. 鈥淭he state court鈥檚 action comes on the heels of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions 鈥 Foster v. Chapman and Pena-Rodriquez v. Colorado 鈥 that emphasize the constitutional imperative to guard against racial bias. The 老澳门开奖结果 has long advocated in North Carolina and other jurisdictions for reform to address widespread racial discrimination in jury selection.鈥

In his 2012 ruling on the Racial Justice Act defendants鈥 cases, Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks found 鈥渁 wealth of evidence showing the persistent, pervasive, and distorting role of race in jury selection throughout North Carolina.鈥 Weeks said the defendants proved that prosecutors removed Black people from jury service at double the rate they struck other potential jurors. The defendants also exposed bias in prosecutors鈥 own notes, training materials, and testimony. For example, a Cumberland County prosecutor wrote notes such as 鈥渂lk wino,鈥 鈥渢hug,鈥 and 鈥渂lack, high drug鈥 to describe prospective Black jurors in a capital case.

James Ferguson, a founding member, along with the late Julius Chambers, of Ferguson, Chambers & Sumter, represents Quintel Augustine along with the Center for Death Penalty Litigation. 老澳门开奖结果 the North Carolina Supreme Court鈥檚 decision, Ferguson said, 鈥淚鈥檝e had the honor of being involved in a number of civil rights milestones in North Carolina. In the 1960s, I was part of our state鈥檚 first racially integrated law firm. We challenged school segregation and housing and employment discrimination, winning several cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. I was there in 2013 when the governor pardoned the Wilmington 10, a group of civil rights activists who were wrongly convicted in the 1970s by a racially biased prosecution. These Racial Justice Act cases are every bit as important to our state鈥檚 progress on civil rights issues.鈥

Under the Racial Justice Act, which prohibited racial discrimination in sentencing in capital cases, Judge Weeks removed all four prisoners from death row in 2012 and sentenced them to life without parole. In 2015, the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned Weeks鈥 decision, saying the hearings should be done over because the state wasn鈥檛 given enough time to prepare and that three of the defendants, who were tried together, should have their own separate hearings. The defendants were sent back to death row.

In January 2017, Superior Court Judge Erwin Spainhour threw out all four cases without allowing a second hearing, saying the defendants could no longer use the Racial Justice Act because the legislature repealed it in 2013. Now that the Supreme Court has accepted the cases, it will decide whether Judge Spainhour鈥檚 decision to dismiss the defendants鈥 powerful evidence of race discrimination was correct.

These four defendants join two other death row prisoners, Rayford Burke and Andrew Ramseur, who are already on the court鈥檚 docket with a related claim. In those cases, the court will decide whether death row prisoners who filed Racial Justice Act claims but have not yet had hearings still have the right to present evidence of racial bias in court.

鈥淎ll we want is for the courts to look at the facts and make a fair decision,鈥 said Ferguson. 鈥淲hen you really look at the evidence, it鈥檚 clear that race is influencing how we use the death penalty in North Carolina. This is a chance for the state鈥檚 highest court to declare, definitively, that racial bias in the death penalty is an urgent civil rights issue that cannot be swept under the rug.鈥

Marcus Robinson is represented by the 老澳门开奖结果, the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, and attorney Don Beskind. Quintel Augustine is represented by the Center for Death Penalty Litigation and Ferguson, Chambers & Sumter. Christina Walters is represented by the Center for Death Penalty Litigation and Malcolm Tye Hunter.

For documents and more information:

North Carolina v. Robinson
/cases/north-carolina-v-robinson

North Carolina Racial Justice Act
/north-carolina-racial-justice-act?redirect=ncrja

老澳门开奖结果 Capital Punishment Project
/issues/capital-punishment

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