
To the North Carolina GOP, "limited government" means shutting down state efforts to alleviate racial disparities in death penalty sentencing:
Near the top of the to-do list for many GOP members of North Carolina's newly Republican-controlled legislature will be repeal of the state's Racial Justice Act, approved during the 2009 session in a series of party-line votes.
The law allows judges to consider whether race played a role in the decision to seek or impose the death penalty, and it provides the authority to commute a death sentence to life in prison if evidence of racial bias is found. [...]
The N.C. Republican Party used the Racial Justice measure to hammer Democratic legislators in the run-up to the November election.
In a controversial mailer distributed to voters in Democratic districts, the N.C. Republican Party claimed the law would result in death row inmates being released to potentially move in next door. The accusation was untrue but effective.
The legislation is an attempt to address the large racial disparities in North Carolina's application of the death penalty. To wit: a 2001 study from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill found that the odds of getting a death sentence increased three and a half times if the victim was white rather than a person of color. The measure gives current death row inmates a year to appeal their sentences, and allows judges to consider statistical evidence that suggest race as a key factor in prosecutors seeking, or courts imposing, a death penalty sentence. If convinced, judges could overturn a death sentence and impose life without parole.
Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly have never been supporters of the bill, and were unanimous in their opposition. Conservative activist groups came out to support Republican opposition, with some groups -- like Americans for Prosperity North Carolina -- actively pushing the falsehood that the Racial Justice Act would parole death penalty inmates.
In opposing the act, the GOP has focused on frivolous filings -- "white people are making appeals!" -- victims rights, and general enthusiasm for the death penalty ("We are just giving murderers an additional tool to delay justice," said one Republican state legislator in his opposition). Few Republicans have acknowledged racial disparities in death penalty sentencing, and there doesn't seem to be any concern for the larger number of death penalty sentences imposed on African American convicts.
That said, I'm not surprised. The state GOP is simply joining its Raleigh County subsidiary in opposing all state efforts to do something about the state's numerous racial disparities. And what can we expect next? An effort to break and dilute the power of minority voters. Awesome.
-- Jamelle Bouie