LOD: Justice Over Bias

In a historic decision today, Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks found that prosecutors deliberately excluded qualified black jurors from serving on the jury in the case of death row inmate Marcus Robinson. The hearing was the first to apply North Carolina’s landmark Racial Justice Act. Following the law’s directives, the judge resentenced Robinson to life without the possibility of parole because unrefuted evidence showed that racial discrimination infected Robinson’s prosecution, consistent with a broader statistical pattern of racial bias in jury selection across the state. “The evidence should serve as a clear signal of the need for reform in capital jury selection proceedings in the future,” said the Cumberland County judge. “The very integrity of the court is jeopardized when a prosecutor’s discrimination invites cynicism respecting the jury’s neutrality and undermines public confidence.” The 167-page decision is here.  The decision offers hope that a broken system at the heart of a democratic society can be rebuilt to treat everyone fairly.