The first five death row inmates have filed bias claims associated with North Carolina’s new Racial Justice Act.
Supporters and critics of the act expect many more claims. Some seem unconnected with the act’s stated goal: ensuring that racial bias did not lead to death sentences. Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby is a skeptic who “points to motions that have been filed in pending cases his office is prosecuting where defendants accused in killings are claiming racial bias even when the defendants and victims are of the same race.”
CarolinaJournal.tv documented similar concerns about the Racial Justice Act earlier this year.
