| First hearing under NC racial justice act begins |
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January 30, 2012 The Associated Press FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Change is coming to North Carolina through a new law that lets death row prisoners challenge their sentences if race was a significant factor at sentencing, a defense attorney said Monday of the first case involving the state's Racial Justice Act. The hearing involving death row inmate Marcus Robinson opened Monday afternoon in Cumberland County Superior Court after Judge Greg Weeks handled motions earlier that day, including prosecutors' request to give them extra time to present their case after the defense finishes. "It has been a long time coming, but finally change is coming," defense attorney James Ferguson of Charlotte told the judge, who will decide the case without a jury. In 2009, the Legislature approved the act, which allows death row prisoners and defendants facing the death penalty to use statistics and other evidence to show racial bias played a significant role in either their sentences or prosecutors' decision to pursue the death penalty. The law says that the prisoner's sentence is reduced to life in prison without parole if the claim is successful. This hearing, expected to last about two weeks, addresses Robinson's claim that race was a factor in prosecutors' decisions to reject potential jurors who were black. Robinson also claims that race was a factor in the prosecutors' decisions to seek the death penalty against accused murderers and that the victims' race was a factor in whether juries issued death sentences. Robinson, who is black, came close to death in January 2007, but a judge blocked his scheduled execution. His victim, 17-year-old Erik Tornblom who was killed in a robbery in 1991, was white. A co-defendant, Roderick Williams, is serving a life sentence. Ferguson showed a statewide map of North Carolina's prosecutorial districts at he said showed race was significant factor in prosecutors' decisions to use peremptory challenges to eliminate black jurors in almost every district. Black jurors were at least 1.2 times more likely to be rejected than non-white jurors in counties that had applicable death row cases, he said. The range went to more than 3.1 percent, he said, basing his numbers on a study by researchers at Michigan State University. The study by two law professors also showed that of almost 160 people on death row at the time of the study, 31 had all-white juries and 38 had only one person of color. "This case is important because it provides an opportunity for all of us to recognize that race far too often has been a significant factor in jury selection in capital cases," Ferguson said. One of the researchers, Barbara O'Brien, was the first witness, testifying about the methodology of the study. In Robinson's case, qualified black jurors were struck at the rate of 50 percent, while non-black jurors were struck at a rate of 14.3 percent, she said. The ratio of strikes in his case is 3.5 percent, she said. When defense attorney Jay Ferguson asked her repeatedly if she thought race was a significant factor in capital cases in North Carolina, her response was always similar: "Yes, I think it was a significant factor." During a break, Tornblom's stepmother said it was Robinson who brought race into the case because he said he was looking for a white person to target. "The racial part was on his side," said Patricia Tornblom of Hope Mills. Tornblom gave Robinson and Williams Jr. a ride from a Fayetteville convenience store. Tornblom was forced to drive to a field where he was shot with a sawed-off shotgun. Robinson is attending without restraints after Weeks ruled Monday that he should be unshackled in the courtroom. Members of Robinson's family, including his mother, Shirley Burns of Hope Mills, also were in the courtroom. After the first day of the hearing, Burns said she was optimistic that her son would be sentenced to life without parole. "The truth is in the graphs and numbers," she said. In the morning session, prosecutors asked the judge to allow the defense to present its evidence. Then they wanted a break of eight weeks to finish a statewide survey of prosecutors about their capital cases because not all district attorneys have responded to their requests for help. Weeks refused, saying he had continued the case in September and November. "The fault in the incomplete study ... is in the prosecutors who have not complied with your request to do what you asked them to do," the judge said. http://www.gastongazette.com/articles/hearing-66758-justice-racial.html#ixzz1l3JBXr6Y
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