This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. The platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we take back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please stop by each week. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads. If you are interested in starting your own state blog, weekly to occasionally, I will list your work below.
Colorado: Mondays, 7:00 PM Mountain Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern Missouri: Wednesday Evenings Kansas: Monday Evenings
I hope you find the following links interesting and relevant.
Racial Justice Act hearing concludes — for now
Arguments concluded Friday in a Johnston County judicial proceeding that will have significant implications for about 120 people on North Carolina’s death row.
For the past two weeks attorneys for Hasson Bacote, a Black man sentenced to death in Johnston County in 2009, have put the death penalty on trial. They built their case around 680,000 documents turned over in discovery, which an attorney called“the most comprehensive discovery provided by the state on jury selection issues in North Carolina.”
They questioned Assistant District Attorney Gregory Butler, who prosecuted Bacote, about his closing arguments in two cases where he called Black defendants “thugs” and “predators on the African plain.” And they presented evidence showing that Black prospective jurors were more than 2.5 times more likely to be struck from a jury pool statewide, four times more likely to be struck from a jury pool in Johnston County and 10 times more likely to be struck in cases tried by Butler.
“We have white prosecutors standing in front of overwhelmingly white juries comparing Black defendants facing the death penalty to animals – ‘mad dogs,’ ‘hyenas,’ ‘predators of the African plain,’” said Henderson Hill, senior counsel for the ACLU. “The racism in North Carolina’s application of the death penalty is so clear it’s blinding.”
Follow the links below to read more of Newsline’s coverage of the hearing:
- Death penalty on trial as Racial Justice Act hearing begins
- RJA hearing expert: race a factor in prosecutors’ decision to strike jurors
- Expert: every Black person tried capitally in Johnston County has received a death sentence
- ‘Johnston County is Klan country,’ expert says in Racial Justice Act hearing
- Witnesses explore jury selection, racial stereotypes in Racial Justice Act hearing
'Vile' North Carolina GOP candidate misses when women couldn't vote: report
Huffington Post writer Jennifer Bendery Wednesday issued a stern warning to female voters in North Carolina: Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson wants to return to an America where women cannot vote.
"I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote,” Robinson said about four years ago. "In those days we had real social change."
Bendery published this quote in a damning profile on the Republican who secured on Super Tuesday his party's nomination for the state's governorship.
She appears to have been inspired by the New York Times' more subdued profile, which she called a "stunningly bad take."
"Five things to know about Mark Robinson are that his upbringing was difficult, his political career was fueled by online support and his wife had an abortion in 1989?" Bendery wrote on X. "This guy is a dangerous conspiracy theorist."
Public education advocates decry Lt. Governor Robinson’s stances, rhetoric
The days after Super Tuesday are often a rest time for candidates. A chance to catch one’s breath, reflect on what worked and what didn’t, and get ready for the long slog toward November’s general election.
But education advocates say there is too much on the line to rest. With just 244 days until voters head to the polls again, a coalition of groups launched a statewide accountability campaign against GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson on Thursday.
“There is no institution more important to bring us together to be one people than our public schools,” said Meyer. “It is the place where we learn that no matter where you come from in the society, no matter how much money your family has, no matter how long they’ve lived here, we become one when we are all educated together.”
NC Dem Gov. candidate: 'Yes' I want Biden to come campaign with me (click title for CNN interview)
Thanks for reading, wishing all a fine week.