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Impt case being argued in NC on Mon: In 2009 the Dem-controlled NC Legislature passed the #RacialJusticeAct, allowing death row inmates to challenge sentences tainted by racial discrimination. In 2013 the new NC Legislature repealed the #RacialJusticeAct. nytimes.com/2019/08/23/opi…
This is the same legislature, newly controlled by Republicans, that passed an omnibus voter suppression bill later struck down by the federal courts as unconstitutionally created to discriminate against Black voters.
Now Black men who were sentenced to death row before the RJA was repealed, despite clear evidence of racial bias in their sentencing are fighting for the right to present that evidence in court. On Monday, a dream team of death penalty attys will argue in the NC Supreme Court.
Can a new legislature simply by repealing the #RacialJusticeAct revoke the life sentences of Black men who proved racial discrimination in their sentencing under the #RacialJusticeAct and send them back to death row? No fair and “just” criminal justice system could permit this.
On Mon. a “dream team” of capital punishment defense attys will argue this case before the NC Supreme Court. Among them legendary civil rights atty James Ferguson (law partner to @NAACP_LDF ‘s 3d Dir-Counsel Julius Chambers) & our own Deputy Director of Litigation @JLee_LDF.
Let me brag on our @JLee_LDF for a moment. She successfully argued before the Arkansas Supreme Court last year in a case involving racial discrimination in the sentencing of one of our clients, who as a result, was removed from death row. She is an extraordinary civil rts atty.
It is not only her skill as an atty, @JLee_LDF’s deep compassion & concern for our clients, & her guidance & leadership on our staff are incomparable. Whether leading our work on the Harvard affirm. action case or representing our clients on death row, she is the total package.
Also arguing in this case is @HHill3663, one of the foremost death penalty attys in our country & @CassyStubbsNC of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, another powerhouse. The argument & the outcome in this case will determine the very integrity of the justice system in NC.
You can read the brief @NAACP_LDF filed in this case here naacpldf.org/wp-content/upl…
