FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
26 March 2013
For More Information: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, President, 919-394-8137
Mrs. Amina J. Turner, Executive Director, 919-682-4700
Atty. Jamie Phillips, Public Policy Coordinator, 919-682-4700
Our Case AGAINST Restarting the Death Penalty
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Repeal of the Racial Justice Act - SB 306
Below is the NC NAACP statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding Senate Bill 306, which would repeal the Racial Justice Act and attempt to restart executions in North Carolina. Unfortunately, the debate for this bill was limited and most pudblic speakers were not given an opportunity to speak, including the North Carolina NAACP. The bill passed in committee and is expected to reach the Senate floor tomorrow, March 27, 2013.
Intended Statement to the NC Senate Judiciary Committee
The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP
March 26, 2013
During holy week the church remembers the death of an innocent man, Jesus Christ. He was killed by a Roman system of capital punishment, applied in a discriminatory way against the Jewish people. The republican leadership in the North Carolina General Assembly wants to restart state sponsored death that has been proven to be riddled with racial and class bypass. To know the system is racially biased and yet proceed without addressing these issues is to engage in the sinful act of state sponsored murder rendering the justice system a tool of injustice and violation of constitutional rights carried out in the name of every citizen of NC. This is wrong and undermines the very foundations of our judicial system.
The North Carolina NAACP is unequivocally opposed to the death penalty. However, even if you are a proponent of the death penalty you should be against racial bias playing any role in its application. The Racial Justice Act was passed with the support of proponents and opponents of the death penalty. All agreed that racial bias has no place in the application of the ultimate punishment of death.
Last year the NC General Assembly gutted the RJA's most important parts. They claimed systematic racism clearly shown in statewide statistics somehow shouldn't be considered as evidence of racial bias. Still, some want to go back in time because pieces of the law are still working, but more importantly they have an ideological opposition to racial justice.
And now Sen. Goolsby and others want to simultaneously roll back protections against racially biased executions by repealing what's left of the Racial Justice Act, while at the same time restarting the death penalty.
Two Superior Court judges in North Carolina examined the law and evidence. The first Republican Judge found the original RJA constitutional. And the second, the Cumberland County Superior Court, examined the comprehensive evidence presented to it by both sides for several months and found that race played a significant role in the death sentence of the first RJA petitioner, Marcus Robinson, and changed his death sentence to life in prison without parole. The Court found what virtually every researcher who has studied the death penalty process has shown: racism infects much of this system and its ultimate punishment--the death penalty.
No one will be released from prison under the Racial Justice Act. The prisoners will still be punished with life in prison with no possibility of parole. But please imagine how many more people may be proven innocent between now and their execution dates? Since 1999 five innocent men have been released from death row. All were charged with the murders of white victims.
All the evidence shows that the death penalty system is flawed with racial bias. So why would you rush to send so many people to death? What is the rush? We should be strengthening the Racial Justice Act not doing away with it. Do not repeal the RJA. A death penalty system that is flawed with racial and class bias is tragic and must continue to be corrected and must not be ignored.
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Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.
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