Closing Arguments in Hasson Bacote’s North Carolina Racial Justice Act Hearing Conclude; Results Could Impact More than 100 People on State’s Death Row

On August 21, 2024, attor­neys pre­sent­ed clos­ing argu­ments in the case of North Carolina v. Hasson Bacote, a land­mark law­suit brought under the state’s Racial Justice Act (RJA), the find­ings of which could impact the sen­tences of more than 100 indi­vid­u­als on North Carolina’s death row. Hasson Bacote, a Black man sen­tenced to death in 2009, first filed a law­suit in 2010, argu­ing that racial bias influ­enced the jury selec­tion in his case and all oth­er death penal­ty cas­es through­out North Carolina. Attorneys for Mr. Bacote pre­sent­ed evi­dence dur­ing a two-week hear­ing that showed a pat­tern of clear and per­sis­tent racial bias in jury selec­tion. They argued that racial bias has his­tor­i­cal­ly exclud­ed peo­ple of col­or from serv­ing on cap­i­tal juries, result­ing in a dis­pro­por­tion­ate num­ber of extreme sen­tences for Black men in North Carolina, includ­ing Mr. Bacote. ​“This fight for jus­tice has been 15 years in the mak­ing,” said Cassandra Stubbs, direc­tor of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project. Ms. Stubbs added that ​“the out­come of this case will not just deter­mine if Hasson Bacote’s life is spared, but if North Carolina will con­tin­ue to con­done sys­temic racial injus­tice in its courts and crim­i­nal legal sys­tem. We hope to final­ly turn the page on that shame­ful chap­ter in his­to­ry and ensure a new era of justice.”

North Carolina’s RJA was passed by the state leg­is­la­ture in 2009, allow­ing indi­vid­u­als sen­tenced to death to chal­lenge their sen­tences based on the role race played in their sen­tenc­ing and jury selec­tion. Individuals who could prove their sen­tenc­ing was prej­u­diced by racial bias would be resen­tenced to life in prison with­out the oppor­tu­ni­ty for parole. In 2013, the RJA was repealed under Governor Pat McCrory, but the state Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that pris­on­ers who had already filed claims before the repeal were enti­tled to hear­ings. Mr. Bacote’s case, which began in February 2024 in Johnston County, is the first case to be heard after the high­est court’s ruling.

Throughout the two-week hear­ing, attor­neys for Mr. Bacote called his­to­ri­ans, sta­tis­ti­cians, and oth­er promi­nent researchers to present expert tes­ti­mo­ny demon­strat­ing the wide­spread nature of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion by pros­e­cu­tors in jury selec­tion across the state of North Carolina. The attor­neys high­light­ed the racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in juries in Johnston County against Black defen­dants and con­nect­ed the mod­ern death penal­ty to North Carolina’s his­to­ry of racial vio­lence and ter­ror. ​“The evi­dence of racism could not be more stark,” said Gretchen M. Engel, the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation. ​“Black cit­i­zens have been denied their right to a voice in the jury box and pros­e­cu­tors have referred to Black defen­dants as ​‘thugs’ and ​‘preda­tors of the African plain.’ When the pun­ish­ment is as severe and final as the death penal­ty, we can­not tol­er­ate dis­crim­i­na­tion in the sys­tem,” Ms. Engel added.

Serving on a jury is a fun­da­men­tal con­sti­tu­tion­al right of United States cit­i­zens. For many decades, across the U.S., Black peo­ple were denied the right to serve on juries. The U.S. Supreme Court deci­sion in Batson v. Kentucky (1986) reaf­firmed that racial dis­crim­i­na­tion in jury selec­tion is ille­gal. During the hear­ing, attor­neys for Mr. Bacote pre­sent­ed data which show that poten­tial Black jurors were four times more like­ly to be elim­i­nat­ed from a jury pool in Johnston County and ten times more like­ly to be elim­i­nat­ed by Assistant District Attorney Gregory Butler, the pros­e­cu­tor in Mr. Bacote’s case. Black prospec­tive jurors were two and a half times more like­ly to be struck from the jury pool across North Carolina. ​“The lives of over one hun­dred peo­ple on death row in North Carolina could be deter­mined by this case,” said Ashley Burrell, senior coun­sel at the Legal Defense Fund. ​“This is a his­toric oppor­tu­ni­ty to address a long, sor­did his­to­ry of sys­temic racism that has infect­ed the crim­i­nal legal sys­tem broad­ly and the death penal­ty specif­i­cal­ly. We are hope­ful that the court will rule in the inter­ests of justice.”

Mr. Bacote is rep­re­sent­ed by the American Civil Liberties Union’s Capital Punishment Project, the ACLU of North Carolina, the Legal Defense Fund, the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, and attor­ney Jay Ferguson.