Home > Uncategorized > NC NAACP: ‘Right-thinking people’ should support the Racial Justice Act (audio)

NC NAACP: ‘Right-thinking people’ should support the Racial Justice Act (audio)

Post on January 3, 2012 by Clayton Henkel 9 Comments »

When the General Assembly reconvenes Wednesday afternoon, the president of the NC NAACP is hopeful ‘right-thinking’ Republicans and Democrats will vote to sustain Governor Perdue’s veto of Senate Bill 9.

The bill Perdue vetoed in mid-December would essentially gut the Racial Justice Act, which allows death-row inmates to appeal their sentence, if they can prove racial bias was a factor in their conviction.

The NAACP’s Rev. William Barber criticized Republican leadership Tuesday for distortions about the two-year-old law. The act cannot be used to free death row inmates. It allows for a reduced sentence of life behind bars without parole, if statistical bias can be proven.

“In 2012 for a Southern state to attempt to say it doesn’t want to engage in racial justice, should be concerning for all people,” said Barber.

The NC House and Senate will reconvene at 2:00pm. Three-fifths of each chamber is needed to override the Governor’s veto.

To hear the NC NAACP president’s full remarks, click below:

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Comments (Closed):9

Frances Jenkins
January 3, 2012 at 7:32 pm
What a headline! This is easy to say, but not if a white man has killed his wife, his daughter, and her daughter. He was convicted by a white jury and a white DA.He is on death row and has appealed. WHAT ABOUT THE VICTIMS, WHY WILL YOU NOT TALK ABOUT THEM?
James
January 3, 2012 at 8:30 pm
@Frances … Got blood lust?

No victims can be brought back to life by killing someone else. And no convicted murders will get out of their life sentences because of the RJA. But you can be damn sure that more black people will be executed while white criminals skate because of the Republican racist agenda.
Frances Jenkins
January 3, 2012 at 10:01 pm
What about the victims, James? Your objectivity does not exist when it comes to the Republicans. The system is flawed but it is flawed because of Democrats not racist Republicans. The Democrats have controlled the legal system for many years.
gregflynn
January 4, 2012 at 8:27 am
Frances, what about the black victims who don’t get equal justice?
Frances Jenkins
January 4, 2012 at 8:45 am
We need to do something but the Racial Justice Act is not the answer. But what chills my blood is no one is listening to the victims because you might hear something you do not have the answers. I think you run when the victims and their families appear in the GA.
James
January 4, 2012 at 10:22 am
The victims are dead.

Which means you and those who have lost loved ones are not talking rational restitution or even punishment, you’re talking revenge.

How many dead white people are worth the life of one innocent black person? Go ahead, give me a number … because in the final analysis, that’s what statistics are all about. Hard, cold numbers.

Do you one one innocent person executed? Do you want ten black people sent to death row for the same crimes that ten white people only get life in prison? Come on. Give me a goddamned number.

We need to do something? What? Until you have a better solution (which I doubt you’ve spent much time focused on) the RJA is the best option for fairness.
Andrew
January 4, 2012 at 1:49 pm
More blacks are killing themselves on the street than death rows, and no one seems concerned !
James
January 4, 2012 at 4:17 pm
You mean no one on the right seems concerned. There are plenty of good progressives doing god’s work to help black families dig out of the hole created by two hundred years of slavery and oppression.

So exactly what are YOU doing to make things better?

Nothing?

I thought so.
Frances Jenkins
January 4, 2012 at 10:24 pm
What a sad, sad day for North Carolina and victims of crime! For hours, liberal Democrats spoke about everything except the victims of brutal crimes and their families. Not one spoke about the horrible deeds imposed by criminals on innocent people. I am ashamed that our society can no longer have compassion on victims of crimes. The data is flawed, the speech by Senator East brought tears to my eyes and compassion to my soul. Shame on you Fritzsimon and James. Raptist, murders,child molestors will have reduced sentences. That is okay and you do not care about victims because they are already dead. Right James.