In November, the New Bosses in the N.C. General Assembly voted to repeal the 2009 Racial Justice Act, which allows judges in death penalty cases to consider statistical evidence of historic racial bias. Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the repeal, and that’s where the issue stands as of today, when the GOP bosses get their troops organized to attempt an override of Perdue’s veto.
An override is not a forgone conclusion, as Republicans in the House would need help from some Democrats to be successful. As ace political reporter Mark Binker of the Greensboro News & Record suggests, Dems are less likely to go along with the GOP in an election year, as an override would amount to setting up the leader of the party for “a high profile slap in the face.”
Still, the state GOP, led in this case by House double-Speaker Thom Tillis, is determined to use the Racial Justice Act as part of its crusade to return North Carolina to the good ol’ days when the state could execute black men all day long without having to hear some whiny liberals wailing about a sissy notion like “justice.” Tillis & Co. are nothing if not confident, seemingly willing to throw away whatever African American votes they might have gotten in November, as well as the votes of independents who may not trust Democrats but don’t want to vote for obvious racists, either.
BlueNC’s James Protzman has created a new text-to-video piece featuring “Thom Tillis,” giving the lowdown on the veto override battle. Watch and enjoy:
Image credit: Electronic Village
This article appears in Jan 3-9, 2012.
Better title for this article: “State Dems: Families of murder victims should not expect justice”.
It is a testament to Grooms’s respect within the journalistic community that his “New Bosses” cliche has been picked up by exactly NOBODY, despite his repeated repeated repeated repeated repeated use of it.
What do liberals know about “justice?” N-O-T-H-I-N-G! They continually hide behind political platitudes while doing the very things they denounce others for.