Matt Saldaña ·
11 Aug 2009, 5:19 PM ·
Comment
Today, Gov. Beverly Perdue signed into law the Racial Justice Act, saying the bill’s passage “ensures that when North Carolina hands down our state’s harshest punishment to our most heinous criminals – the decision is based on the facts and the law, not racial prejudice.”
Perdue’s signature, which follows a dramatic 25-18 N.C. Senate vote, makes North Carolina only the second U.S. state to pass legislation that allows capital defendants to present evidence–including statistical data–arguing that race was an underlying factor in the decision to seek, or impose, the death penalty at the time of their trial. Previously, defendants could only make a claim of racial discrimination based on explicit evidence of racism in the courtroom.
The law gives current death-row inmates one year to file a claim, and allows all other capital defendants to present such a claim during pre-trial hearings, or following the sentencing phase. If a judge is satisfied that the defendant has proven race was an underlying factor, despite counter-evidence presented by the prosecution, he or she can reduce the sentence or the charge to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Press releases from the Governor’s office, Amnesty International, and the N.C. NAACP, after the jump: Continue reading »
North Carolina Bev Perdue, Earline Parmon, Floyd McKissick, Larry Womble, NAACP, NC General Assembly, Paul Luebke, Pricey Harrison, racial justice act
Matt Saldaña ·
26 Feb 2009, 11:05 PM ·
1 Comment
Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, has introduced a bill that would make it illegal for electric public utilities in North Carolina to purchase, or use, coal derived from dynamiting mountaintops in southern Appalachia. Half of the coal used to produce electricity in North Carolina is derived from the process, known as mountaintop removal, resulting in radically altered ecosystems, polluted streams and rivers, and billions of tons gallons of toxic “coal slurry,” collected in artificial pools, or injected into ground soil. Other than Georgia, no other state in the U.S. uses more mountaintop removal-derived coal.
“Because North Carolina burns a significant amount of coal extracted by mountaintop removal coal mining, we have an obligation to eliminate or reduce the devastating social and environmental impacts of this mining in the Appalachian Mountains,” the bill states.
Harrison introduced a similar bill last year, saying she was motivated in part by 2008 Indies Arts Award winner Michael O’Connell’s documentary, Mountaintop Removal, which focuses on the devastating effect on Appalachian families.
Continue reading »
North Carolina, Pittsboro, arts, environment Michael O'Connell, mountaintop removal, NC General Assembly, Pricey Harrison
