Marcus Robinson Remembered for Pioneering Racial Justice Case

Marcus Robinson (pic­tured), the first per­son to be grant­ed relief under North Carolina​’s trail­blaz­ing Racial Justice Act, has died. Robinson, who was sen­tenced to death in 1994 for a crime he com­mit­ted short­ly after turn­ing 18, died June 9, 2022. He was 49 years old.

An obit­u­ary by his fam­i­ly and a trib­ute by his attor­neys remem­bered Robinson for his devo­tion to his fam­i­ly and his sense of humor, as well as his role in chal­leng­ing the racial dis­par­i­ties in North Carolina’s death penalty.

According to the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, ​“Marcus was por­trayed as a cold-blood­ed Black man on the hunt for a white vic­tim. Prosecutors inten­tion­al­ly removed Black jurors who might have been more like­ly to see Marcus as human.” In 2009, North Carolina passed the Racial Justice Act (RJA), a law that per­mit­ted death-row pris­on­ers to bring post-con­vic­tion claims based on evi­dence, includ­ing sta­tis­ti­cal stud­ies, that racial bias was a sig­nif­i­cant fac­tor that con­tributed to their sen­tences. In 2012, Judge Gregory Weeks over­turned Robinson’s death sen­tence, find­ing ​“that race was a sig­nif­i­cant fac­tor in pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al deci­sions to exer­cise peremp­to­ry strikes in Robinson’s capital trial.”

Robinson became the first per­son resen­tenced to life with­out parole under North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act. 

In the years between the law’s pas­sage and Judge Weeks’ rul­ing in Robinson’s case, par­ti­san con­trol of the leg­is­la­ture had shift­ed. The new Republican major­i­ty amend­ed the law to make it more dif­fi­cult for pris­on­ers to prove racial bias. Even under the high­er stan­dard of proof, the next three pris­on­ers whose cas­es were heard also suc­ceed­ed in over­turn­ing their death sen­tences. In response, the leg­is­la­ture ful­ly repealed the law and des­ig­nat­ed the repeal as retroac­tive, rein­stat­ing the death sen­tences of Robinson and three oth­ers. They appealed to the North Carolina Supreme Court.

In August 2020, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down the retroac­tive repeal of the RJA. Chief Justice Cheri Beasley wrote for the major­i­ty, say­ing, ​“Today, we are not asked to pass on the wis­dom of repeal­ing a statu­to­ry mech­a­nism for root­ing out the insid­i­ous ves­tiges of racism in the imple­men­ta­tion of our state’s most extreme pun­ish­ment. That deci­sion is for the General Assembly. Instead, this Court must decide whether the North Carolina Constitution allows for that repeal to be retroac­tive. We hold that it does not. … Once the tri­al court found that Robinson had proven all of the essen­tial ele­ments under the RJA to bar the impo­si­tion of the death penal­ty,” she wrote, “[he] was legal­ly enti­tled to the impo­si­tion of a life sentence.”

Attorney David Weiss recount­ed his expe­ri­ence inform­ing Robinson that he would no longer face exe­cu­tion: ​“Marcus said he was excit­ed, grate­ful, thank­ful, and elat­ed. He rat­tled off this string of adjec­tives. In ret­ro­spect, I won­der how hap­py he real­ly was to be serv­ing a life with­out parole sen­tence, whether he was say­ing that more for our ben­e­fit. Life in prison was real­ly hard for Marcus.” 

Robinson’s fam­i­ly wrote, ​“Marcus believed the law could bring real change to North Carolina, and embraced his role in the broad­er strug­gle for racial justice.”