SMITHFIELD, N.C. (Aug. 21, 2024) — Closing arguments in the historic Racial Justice Act (RJA) hearing in the case of Hasson Bacote are scheduled to take place beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday (today) at the Johnston County Courthouse.
North Carolina’s RJA was the first law in the country that allowed people facing execution to bring forward comprehensive evidence of the ways that racism infected their death sentences. Bacote’s two week hearing came to a close in March and showed clear racial discrimination in jury exclusion which ultimately led to his death sentence.
Mr. Bacote is represented by the ACLU Capital Punishment Project, the Legal Defense Fund, the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, and Durham attorney Jay Ferguson.
Community leaders who have been calling for an end to the death penalty for years are now urging the court to uphold the RJA, rule in favor of Bacote, and send a strong message to right the wrongs of our state’s racist practice when it comes to sentencing people to death.
Many of these leaders will be present today for closing arguments and a brief community gathering ahead of the hearing at 9:30 a.m. outside the courthouse.
Their statements about the hearing are below:
“The evidence [at trial] showed that prospective Black jurors were prevented from serving on capital juries due to membership in the NAACP, connections to Black colleges or living in historically Black neighborhoods,” said Dr. Gettys Cohen Jr., a retired dentist who resides in Smithfield and serves as president of the Johnston County Branch of the NAACP. “The courts held that the exclusion of Black jurors for these reasons were race neutral. In other words, in North Carolina when facing the death penalty, it is ok to prevent Black people from participating in the process. It is time to address these wrongs. The courts, the governor, and the legislature must take action to remove racism from the death penalty.”
“The facts were clear that the prosecutor in Johnston County struck potential Black jurors at a rate of 10 times those of white jurors,” said James E. Williams Jr., Board member of North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers. “He used well known racist tropes when referring to the defendant. The racist application of the death penalty in North Carolina carried out by prosecutors and approved by courts stains our legal system, and until we right the wrongs, our capital process cannot be trusted.”
“The racial justice hearing made clear that North Carolina’s legacy of lynching and racial oppression has impacted the implementation of the death penalty,” said Reverend Veronica Murphy, the pastor of St John AME Church in Pikeville, NC, located in Johnston County. “People charged with capital crimes were threatened with lynching by members of the community. We need to build a response to violence that helps those harmed and prevents harm going forward rather than one that allows racist tropes to determine who lives and who dies. Furthermore, as a pastor, I strongly believe only God has the power to give life and take life. Therefore, the death penalty must end.”
“The facts established in the racial justice hearing about the death penalty process clearly show that a county with a history of voter suppression, Klu Klux Klan rallies, housing discrimination and law enforcement who are comfortable making racist statements cannot be trusted to carry out the death penalty fairly,” said Reggie Shuford, Executive Director of the North Carolina Justice Center. “It is 2024, and it is time to address the egregious implementation of the death penalty in North Carolina.”
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Southern Coalition for Social Justice, founded in 2007, partners with communities of color and economically disadvantaged communities in the South to defend and advance their political, social, and economic rights through the combination of legal advocacy, research, organizing, and communications. Learn more at southerncoalition.org and follow our work on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Media Contacts:
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