It sounds so terrible, so completely and grossly unfair.
The sponsors of the North Carolina Racial Justice Act and the state chapter of the NAACP want you to believe that the death penalty is handed out in an utterly racist manner in this state. Their statistics sound convincing.
While only 22 percent of the state’s population is African-American, some 53 percent of the state’s death row inmates are black. So juries and prosecutors must be horribly racist, they conclude.
What we need to do to make it fair, Racial Justice Act sponsors say, is to commute death sentences, no matter how horrendous the crime or the circumstances that surrounded it, if the inmate can prove race played a factor in his sentencing. And incredibly, according to this legislation, an inmate only needs to show that someone of his race is statistically more likely to get a death sentence in this state and they’re off the hook.
It’s the ultimate get out of jail free card, and if the North Carolina Racial Justice Act passes, both black and white death row inmates will be able to use it to get their sentences commuted.
Consider statistics from a different source. According to the FBI’s 2005 Uniform Crime Report, the latest available, it’s white inmates who are actually being discriminated against. While 38 percent of those arrested for murder in this state are white, 39 percent of those on death row are white. See? Discrimination!
Meanwhile, according to the FBI stats, 57 percent of those arrested for murder here are African-American while only 53 percent of those on death row are. No fair!
Guess we’ll just have stick to executing Asians and American Indians. Almost three percent of those arrested for murder in North Carolina self-identify as American Indians, yet only 1.5 percent of those on death row are American Indians, so clearly we need to kill more of them — to make it fair, of course.
The beauty of this bill, from an axe murderer’s perspective, is that it is retroactive and there are no limits on which statistics you can use. So if you don’t like the 2005 FBI statistics, you could just use the 2004 statistics. Reporting to the FBI is voluntary, though most law enforcement agencies increasingly do it. In 2004, 380 North Carolina law enforcement agencies reported homicides to the FBI. In 2005, 448 did. That means the stats fluctuate annually, so there’s plenty of statistical “diversity” to choose from.
If a serial killer still can’t get the results he wants from those statistics, there’s always the murder incarceration statistics kept by the North Carolina Department of Correction, which can be used as a last resort.
This is the single most idiotic piece of state legislation I’ve seen come down the pike in years, and that includes the recent Mike Nifong Protection Act (see my April 25 column.) Incredibly, some Mecklenburg County legislators have hopped on board to sponsor it. Mecklenburg sponsors include Republican House member Ruth Samuelson and Democrats Martha Alexander, Pete Cunningham and Tricia Cotham.
The bill is so outrageous it really has to be read to be believed. (Go to http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/ and use the bill text search.)
It even has a back door clause. If your lawyer is too drunk or incompetent to use the above-mentioned statistics to get you out of the death penalty, he or she can use the racial make-up of the jury that convicted you. If your jury didn’t match the state’s demographic make-up, you can argue that you’ve been discriminated against.
Incredibly, the sponsors of this bill would rather have your prosecutor and defense attorney pick a racially diverse jury rather than the most fair and impartial one. I guess that means that prosecutors should place more importance on the race of a juror who says “kill them all and let God sort them out” than on his bad attitude?
The problem, as anyone who has witnessed a criminal trial knows, is that the prosecutor and the defense attorney both play a part in selecting who will be on the jury through the use of pre-emptory challenges.
So if your prosecutor doesn’t do you the favor of discriminating against you during jury selection so you can get out of your death sentence later, your own attorney can cover that and then claim later that he or she discriminated against you. Insta discrimination!
The most offensive part of this bill, from a victim’s perspective, is the line that contains the words “irrespective of statutory factors.” It essentially says that statistical proof that those of your race have been discriminated against in sentencing will trump every other aggravating factor in determining whether your death sentence is overturned.
So you robbed your victim before you tortured her for three days and stabbed her 43 times? No biggie. That’s just a “statutory factor.”
After the Nifong debacle, I thought there was nothing state leaders could do to embarrass this state worse before the nation on Court TV. As usual, I’ve underestimated them.
So from now on, I guess it’s “Death to the Indians!”
This article appears in May 16-22, 2007.
You sound very upset about executions ending. It’s not a get out of jail free card. It’s still a life sentence. How do you feel about the recent rulings overturning verdicts because of DNA evidence? What portion of the innocent men who were locked up and many years later cleared of wrongdoing minorities?
I’ve always liked your writing, what is the deal with this piece?
The logic is bad, but it is the manic tone of the piece that makes it strange. Were you on deadline? Too much coffee? Other substance?
We need to replace all those politicians that support measures such as these; the legal system is almost beyond fixing. The criminals have taken control with the help of these Groups, ACLU, NAACP and worst of all our elected Judges and officials. If 57% of Murders were committed by blacks and 38% by whites, Then 100% of them need to be put to death and quickly. None of this 20 years on death row due to a long appeals process. They need to be walked out of sentencing into an appeals hearing and then to the electric chair. Although I feel that these criminals need to be put to death the same way they killed their victims that would send a message to the thugs in the community.
growing up, I remember the dunce cap and the stool in the corner. You had to sit right in front of your entire class…so I propose we move the electric chairs right into each court room. Once a jury convicts and the judge drops his mighty gavel, then just walk the criminal up, drop him in the chair and hit the switch. Let everyone in the room experience the full consequence of their actions and decisions. Might make some jurors pay more attention to the testimony and want to be sure they have seen all evidence and might make some lawyers and judges realize that their little tidy world of jargon dancing actually has real results. Frankly i don’t care either way about the death sentence, this is not about that. This is about one particular race crying foul all the time about every issue and looking for a free pass for their poor performance in this society. Our justice system is broken. That’s fine, both the police and the 2nd ammendmant public will eventually be forced to meet out just and immediate action on the street. I don’t care what color you are, if you come after me n mine to steal, rape, kill… you won’t get a DNA test or a second chance because you’re black..you will get a bullet because you are there and you are committing the crime.
The majority of serial killers are white males. Before a person is labeled a “serial killer” they must have committed multiple murders. There has to be enough evidence that proves a person has killed more than one person being considered a “Serial Killer”…
If the evidence is there, it doesn’t matter WHAT color the killer is! The punishment should be commensurate with the crimes.
Hello Tara,
Great article! What ever happened to “you do the crime, you deserve the consequences”? It isn’t a black or white issue, it’s a guilty or innocent issue. I still think it would serve common sense and reason to give a convicted murderer (based on evidence only) one appeal within a six month period and then if guilty, the death penality is carried out at sunrise the next day. That would be JUSTICE! Does that make me a Nazi??
Oh. looking forward to listening to you on 1110.
See ya,
M-
Jeremy is right, congrats Tara on your new WBT position..its great to have your voice added in every way to the community. But yeah, this article does read more like its coming via the WBT microphone where on any given day we can find more whining and snooty toned radio whores..oh my God..can they make a DJ possibly say the call letters one moooore time!
i’ve literally stoppped listening to the station cause I’m sick of the self indulgence..having said that, I hope you’ll continue to write your editorials in your traditional style and then have at it with the WBT rant mode when on air. You’re a great addition for them.
Tara did a great job on this, it’s just that this kind of honesty is not PC. I am surprised as normally European Americans are usually only shown to be the villians in the media as it sounds like a few of the people above would prefer it that way with their comments. I think this is the first time that I have seen it in who knows when.
Reputable studies for decades have proven that blacks are discriminated against in all areas of society, particularly the “lack of justice” system. I don’t know where Ms. Servatius got this data from but it is inaccurate as far as reality goes. Blacks are killed in far higher numbers for their crimes than whites or any other group and it is done so because of slavery. Whites still fear blacks because they know many blacks are physically stronger than them and also angry because of their place in society. Whites could fix all of this by just establishing equality for all but they will never do it for blacks because we are seen as less than animals, not even second class citizens.
You can never overlook the legacy of slavery when dealing with how blacks are treated in this country but these color blind policies seek just such injustice. White juries frequently return biased verdicts. The statistics speak for themselves. People assume this hasn’t been proven because they are too lazy to do the research. Racism is alive and well and will be as long as racist people and the media passes it on to the next generation. The prison industrial complex has replaced slavery and no rehabilitation is performed on prisoners resulting in high rates of recidivism.
I’m completely against the death penalty myself like most civilized nations in the world. It reminds me of the time a reporter asked Gandhi what he thought about western civilization. Gandhi replied “I think it would be a good idea.” If black people want justice we have to demand it from the highest levels of government. That means people are going to have to die for it but blacks either need their own land here or the races need to permanently separated. There is no other way.