Racial Justice trial: No execution for black inmate, judge rules
By David Zucchino
April 20, 2012, 11:32 a.m.
... In a 167-page order harshly critical of prosecutors, Weeks said they "intentionally used the race of <jury pool> members as a significant factor in decisions to exercise preemptory strikes in capital cases.’’ He ruled that discrimination was a factor not only in the case Weeks heard involving convicted murderer Marcus Reymond Robinson, but also in capital cases involving black defendants across North Carolina.
The ruling was the first under North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act, passed in 2009, which allows judges to reduce death sentences to life in prison without parole in cases where defendants prove racial bias in jury selection. Prosecutors fought the law, calling it a back-door attempt to overturn the death penalty ...
North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act is the only law of its kind in the country. Similar laws are pending in two other states, said Cassandra Stubbs, one of Robinson’s lawyers. Kentucky has a racial justice act, but it is not retroactive.
Prosecutors have 60 days to appeal Weeks’ ruling. Republicans, who control the state Legislature, have attempted to repeal the Racial Justice Act but have been vetoed by Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue ...
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-north-carolina-racial-justice-20120420,0,7385785.story