Entries tagged with “Roy Cooper”
Issues
Feb 26, 2024
North Carolina Trial Court Will Hear New Evidence of Racial Bias in Death Row Prisoner’s Racial Justice Act Claim
Beginning February 28, 2024, a Johnston County, North Carolina, trial court will hear death row prisoner Hasson Bacote’s claims that racial discrimination in jury selection played a role in his capital sentencing. In 2009, North Carolina passed the Racial Justice Act (RJA), which allowed death-sentenced prisoners to challenge their sentences if they could demonstrate that race played a role in their sentencing and jury selection. Sentenced to death in 2009 by a nearly…
Research
Dec 11, 2023
Activists Call on North Carolina Governor to Commute Death Row “As an Act of Racial Justice”
In North Carolina, a coalition of activists is calling on Governor Roy Cooper to commute the death sentences of 136 people“as an act of racial justice” before he leaves office in 2024. Edward“Ed” Chapman, a death row exoneree who spent 14 years on death row, along with other advocates with the North Carolina Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, are urging Gov. Cooper to grant clemency to all death-sentenced individuals in North Carolina“because of the…