House Ways and Means: Please pass Racial Justice Act without Amendments

CALL on NC House Ways and Means to pass clean Racial Justice Act!

H472, the NC Racial Justice Act initially passed the House Ways and Means Committee on April 23, 2009.

On May 14, 2009 the North Carolina Senate passed an amended version of the Racial Justice Act. Unfortunately, the Senate's amended version has created negative features. In particular:

The amendments add language to death penalty protocol allowing executions to resume without resolving questions related to the Council of State's approval of the lethal injection protocol.

The amendments also limit the use of statistical evidence to the surrounding judicial districts as opposed to a more broadly inclusive statewide collection base.

By passing the Racial Justice Act, the NC Senate acknowledged that racial bias is a serious problem in capital sentencing in North Carolina and called for new court procedures to address these problems. At the same time, however, they removed checks on the death penalty system so that the bill could also be used to restart executions.

The Racial Justice Act is intended to address documented issues of racial bias in capital sentencing in North Carolina. To use this legislation as a pretext to restarting executions is directly opposed to its original intent and completely inappropriate in this context.

The amended Senate version, S461, will once again come before the House Ways and Means Commitee in June 2009.

Please use the following link to thank committee members for the vote supporting the Racial Justice Act in earlier this year and ask that they remove the negative amendments added by the Senate :

>>Learn More

November 22, 2009

Subject:

Dear House Ways and Means Committee Member,

Thank you for voting to support the House version of the NC Racial Justice Act last month. Racial disparities in capital sentencing must be addressed before executions resume in our state. In the coming weeks, the Senate version of the NC Racial Justice Act will come before the House Ways and Means Committee. It is essential that the House restore the Racial Justice Act to the version that passed this committee last month. The amendment added by the Senate aimed at restarting executions must be removed. A decision issued by the Superior Court immediately following the passage of the Racial Justice Act in the Senate will likely end the current moratorium on the death penalty in NC. As such, attempts to use the Racial Justice Act as a mechanism to restart executions are both premature and inappropriate within the context of this legislation. I also ask that the House Ways and Mean restore the use of statewide statistics to the Racial Justice Act. Limiting statistics to anything less than a statewide sample dilutes the strength of the bill and inappropriately restricts information available to defendants when attempting to prove disproportionate sentencing on the basis of race. Before executions restart in NC, every effort must be made to remove racial bias from capital sentencing. Please support a clean Racial Justice Act in committee next month. Thank you.
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View Racial Justice Act Film on Youtube

NC-NAACP, HK on J Coalition, NC Coalition for a Moratorium and Others to General Assembly: Pass Landmark Legislation to Combat Racism Without any Underlying Amendments

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