| Ministers' group blasts district attorney for opposing Racial Justice Act |
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January 11, 2012 By Michael Hewlett Winston-Salem Journal A group of black leaders blasted Forsyth District Attorney Jim O'Neill over his opposition to a 2-year-old law that allows death-row inmates to challenge their sentences on the basis of race. "It's a matter of life and death," said Bishop Todd Fulton, the chairman of the social justice committee for the Ministers Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity. "It's racially sensitive and class sensitive that he responds to our request so we can create a community of justice and equality for everyone." The Ministers Conference held a news conference Tuesday afternoon at Grace Presbyterian Church to criticize O'Neill's support of a letter sent out by Johnston County District Attorney Susan Doyle, president of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys. The letter, dated Nov. 14, called for the repeal of the Racial Justice Act. O'Neill has said he is not planning to change his mind about the Racial Justice Act, but he is willing to meet with the ministers to talk about their concerns. The Rev. Joseph Nance, the president of the Ministers Conference, said Tuesday that he has invited O'Neill to come to meetings of the Ministers Conference. O'Neill did not attend Tuesday's news conference. Nance said O'Neill took an oath to uphold the law, and the Racial Justice is the law. "If he is not going to uphold it, he needs to come out of there," he said. State legislators repealed the law last year, but Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the legislation. Legislators were unable to get enough votes to override the veto. The conference had asked O'Neill in December to disavow that letter and to personally apologize for his support of it. O'Neill has strongly opposed the Racial Justice Act. The law allows defendants and death-row inmates to use statistics and other evidence to prove racial bias played a significant role in their sentences or in the prosecutors' decision to pursue the death penalty. The only remedy under the law is that an inmate's death sentence is commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. O'Neill said Monday that he had no plans to apologize for signing the letter and that he continues to oppose the law. He said no one should be sentenced to death because of their race. "However, when every single white murderer, every single black murderer, every single Hispanic murderer, and every single Indian murderer files under the Racial Justice Act claiming that race is the reason they have received the death sentence and not because of the monstrous acts they committed, who is left in the population to receive a sentence of death?" O'Neill said. He said the Racial Justice Act, as currently written, is nothing more than an attempt to end the death penalty. He said the Racial Justice Act should comply with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in McClesky v. Kemp, which prohibits the use of statistics in proving racial discrimination. Willard Bass, the first vice president of the Ministers Conference, said O'Neill shouldn't be opposed to the Racial Justice Act if he is interested in rooting out racial bias in the criminal-justice system. "All the statistics and research have shown a need for the Racial Justice Act," he said. Motions filed under the Racial Justice Act cite a study by two Michigan State University law professors showing that a defendant in North Carolina is 2.6 times more likely to be sentenced to death if at least one of the victims was white. The study also showed that of the 159 people on death row at the time of the study, 31 had all-white juries and 38 had only one person of color on the jury. The Rev. Serenus Churn, pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church, said the ministers aren't going away silently because these issues are too important to ignore. "We will not simply fold our tents and go away," he said. "We have grit and determination and the ability to outlast this situation." http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2012/jan/11/wsmet01-ministers-group-blasts-district-attorney-f-ar-1801830/
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