North Carolina Republicans overrode Democratic Governor Beverley Perdue’s vetoe of a law that would make it more difficult for death row prisoners to use statistical evidence of racial bias when challenging their sentences.

This effectively undermines 2009’s Racial Justice Act, which directed judges to reduce death sentences to life sentences when there is evidence of racial bias.

From Huffington Post:

“But legislators on Monday gathered the three-fifths majority  needed in the House of Representatives and Senate to override  Perdue’s veto. They had fallen short in January of enough votes  to override a gubernatorial veto of similar rewrite legislation  passed in 2011.

Proponents of Monday’s move said statistical evidence alone  was insufficient to prove racial discrimination in jury  selection, or to overturn a death sentence.

‘We have people who have been rightfully convicted of  cold-blooded murder in the first degree,’ said Republican state  Senator Thom Goolsby.

He said the Racial Justice Act was ‘nothing but a back-door  attempt to get rid of the death penalty.'”

Read more at HuffingtonPost.com

Are NC Republicans denying the existence and power of racial bias with this vote?

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