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From an editorial published in the Raleigh News & Observer on Feb. 16:
The Racial Justice Act, passed in 2009, offers death row inmates an avenue on which to pursue claims of racial bias and the chance to have their death sentences converted to life in prison without parole. Contrary to the claims of some politicians who have tried to inflame voters' emotions, the law does not set free those inmates who "win" life sentences.
Now the law has passed an important test, a constitutional challenge in Forsyth County Superior Court by prosecutors who argued the law is too broad, in that judges would have to contemplate broad claims of racial bias rather than specific complaints. Judge William Z. Wood ruled that the law is constitutional, which means that many cases are likely to proceed. There are 154 death row inmates seeking changes in sentences.
Opponents of the law doubtless will continue to fight it on constitutional grounds, although Wood's ruling would seem to strengthen it. There are opponents in other realms as well. Some Republican leaders in the General Assembly have indicated they'll try to narrow the law or repeal it.
That race has played a part in the severity of sentencing is simply an historical fact in North Carolina and elsewhere.
And the idea that race now is never a factor in prosecutions or in the severity of sentences is simply naive. Even the Racial Justice Act can't eliminate that factor.
What it can do, however, is offer inmates who are facing the state's most severe and irreversible penalty a chance to make their case.
