How North Carolina’s Justice System Reflects America’s Racial Bias In The Death Penalty

Although a majority of polled North Carolina citizens opposes the death penalty, Governor Pat McCrory (R) signed the repeal of his state’s Racial Justice Act on Wednesday, which allowed death row inmates to seek a less severe sentence if they could prove that racial discrimination had led to their punishment.

Image credit: North Carolina Policy Watch
Image credit: North Carolina Policy Watch

The law was enacted in 2009 by McCrory’s Democratic predecessor, Bev Perdue. Since then, four death row inmates have succeeded in getting their respective sentences reduced to life in prison. Of the 152 people on death row in North Carolina, 80 are reported to be black — that’s 52.6 percent — even though blacks constitute only a fifth of the state’s population. McCrory defended his decision by stating that the Racial Justice Act

created a judicial loophole to avoid the death penalty and not a path to justice.

McCrory’s repeal of the Racial Justice Act flies in the face of recent public poll results, which show that a strong majority of North Carolinians support abolishing the death penalty, as 18 other states have done. Sixty-eight percent of respondents claimed to support replacing state executions with life sentences if offenders were forced to work and pay restitution to victims’ families, while 63 percent claimed to support banning capital punishment if the money saved were instead used to fight crime.

The poll reveals that, although a great majority of North Carolinians oppose the death penalty,?liberals and conservatives remain sharply divided on the efficacy of the institution as a deterrent to crime. Question three asks:

Studies show that law enforcement leaders?rank the death penalty at the bottom of a list of?effective crime fighting tools. Knowing this,?would you support or oppose replacing the’death penalty with life without the possibility of ?parole if the money saved could be spent on?effective crime-fighting tools?

Whereas forty percent of “very liberal” respondents “strongly support” this action, approximately the same percentage of “very conservative” respondents “strongly oppose” it.

Contrary to common belief, executions end up costing states more than life imprisonments. In a 2008 Maryland study, death penalty cases cost taxpayers three times more than non-death penalty cases. California found that if it were to abolish capital punishment, it would save $125.5 million annually.

Some Conservatives Reevaluating Their Stance on the Death Penalty

That executions are far costlier than life sentences is just one reason why some conservatives have lately expressed a change of heart toward the institution of capital punishment. One conservative, Steve Monks is an attorney who formerly served as GOP Chairman for Durham County in North Carolina. He recently questioned conservatives’ traditional support of executions?in a piece published in Plain Talk Politics. In the piece he argued:

Along with the excessive costs to taxpayers, the risk of killing innocent people [death row inmates], and the impact on victims? families, many conservatives can offer another compelling reason: our pro-life beliefs.?We are increasingly re-thinking the death penalty because of its many problems, but also because of our respect for human life.

Realizing these concerns, much of the world is trending towards avoiding the death penalty altogether and focusing?instead?on more effective, preventive crime-fighting measures. In Amnesty International’s list of the 21 nations that were known to have executed convicted criminals in 2012, the United States appears as the only Western nation?and, indeed, is one of the “Eight Worst Offenders.” Ranked at #5, the U.S. sits close to its ideological enemies — Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea and others.

Last year the U.S., which has nearly 320 million citizens, executed 43 people. Compare this figure to India, which has three times as many citizens and yet put to death only one known person in 2012. Governor McCrory’s decision to remove legal roadblocks to executions is a step in the wrong direction. Capital punishment is costly, monetarily as well as ethically. The U.S.’s involvement in it places us in the company of nations many red-blooded Americans would prefer not to be associated with.

Edited and published by WP

Joseph Guyer resides in the reddest state in the Union, a wondrous place where pick-up trucks proudly display swinging novelty testicles, fried sticks of butter are deemed safe for human consumption, and female escorts can lawfully be shot for refusing to sleep with you. He firmly agrees with Bill Clinton that there is nothing wrong with America that can't be cured by what is right with America. You can find him on Twitter @joerobguy.