Four African-American death-row pris­on­ers in North Carolina whose death sen­tences had been over­turned for racial dis­crim­i­na­tion have chal­lenged the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of sub­se­quent state court rul­ings that rein­stat­ed their death sen­tences and then denied them a new hear­ing on their dis­crim­i­na­tion claims. The four—Marcus Robinson (pic­tured), Tilmon Golphin, Quintel Augustine, and Christina Walters—had over­turned their death sen­tences in 2012 under the North Carolina Racial Justice Act (RJA), pre­sent­ing evi­dence that a mul­ti-decade sys­tem­at­ic exclu­sion of African Americans from death-penal­ty juries in North Carolina had infect­ed their cas­es with racial bias. However, the North Carolina Supreme Court vacat­ed those rul­ings, say­ing state pros­e­cu­tors deserved an oppor­tu­ni­ty to present addi­tion­al evi­dence, and the North Carolina leg­is­la­ture repealed the RJA. The tri­al court then ruled that, because of the repeal, it could no longer hear the pris­on­ers’ cas­es. Backed by a broad coali­tion of civ­il rights groups and sev­er­al for­mer pros­e­cu­tors, the pris­on­ers filed briefs in the North Carolina Supreme Court on July 16, 2018 argu­ing that the low­er court rul­ing vio­lat­ed numer­ous con­sti­tu­tion­al guar­an­tees, includ­ing due process and the Double Jeopardy claus­es of the state and fed­er­al con­sti­tu­tions. After near­ly three weeks of tes­ti­mo­ny in Robinson’s case, which detailed state pros­e­cu­tors’ use of jury strikes in 173 cap­i­tal tri­als between 1990 and 2010, Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks over­turned Robinson’s death sen­tence, find­ing that the ​“evi­dence showed the per­sis­tent, per­va­sive, and dis­tort­ing role of race in jury selec­tion.” Reviewing expert tes­ti­mo­ny about pros­e­cu­tors’ choic­es to accept or strike more than 7,400 jurors, Weeks deter­mined that pros­e­cu­tors had sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly exclud­ed black jurors from serv­ing in cap­i­tal cas­es ​“with remark­able con­sis­ten­cy across time and juris­dic­tions.” Based on the same statewide evi­dence, plus the jury strikes in their cas­es, Weeks con­clud­ed that the death sen­tences imposed on Golphin, Augustine, and Walters also should be over­turned. Prosecutors then per­suad­ed the North Carolina Supreme Court to vacate Weeks’s rul­ings and send the cas­es back to the tri­al court for more evi­dence. ​“Lo and behold we get back into Superior Court, and at that point, the posi­tion shifts, and it’s well wait a minute, the statute’s been repealed, the cour­t­house door has been shut, and you are out of luck,” explained Gretchen Engel, direc­tor of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation. The pris­on­ers’ appeal drew sup­port from numer­ous civ­il rights and law-reform orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), the North Carolina NAACP, the National Association of Public Defenders, the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, the North Carolina Council of Churches, North Carolina Advocates for Justice, the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, and a group of for­mer pros­e­cu­tors. In a state­ment, LDF senior deputy direc­tor of lit­i­ga­tion Jin Hee Lee said: ​“The con­tin­u­ing stain of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion not only inval­i­dates the death sen­tences imposed on these defen­dants, but it also under­mines pub­lic con­fi­dence in North Carolina’s judi­cial sys­tem as a whole.” Former Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley said, ​“Whatever one thinks of the death penal­ty, we should all agree that exe­cu­tion can nev­er be an option when racial stereo­types are used to keep black cit­i­zens off cap­i­tal juries. No civ­il right is more basic than this.” 

(Robert Richardson, 4 inmates on death row seek per­ma­nent stays of exe­cu­tion due to racial bias, CBS17, July 17, 2018; Paul Woolverton, Cumberland death row inmates say their rights were vio­lat­ed, Fayetteville Observer, July 17, 2018; Tyler Dukes, Civil rights group: NC death penal­ty cas­es rife with racial bias, WRAL​.com, Raleigh, July 17, 2018; Amicus Curiae Brief of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., July 16, 2018.) See Race.

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