A North Carolina judge ruled Friday that racial discrimination played a role in sending a black man to death row for killing a white teenager in 1991, a groundbreaking decision rendered under the state's Racial Justice Act.
Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks said condemned inmate Marcus Robinson should be spared execution and instead serve a life sentence in prison without possibility of parole.
Weeks found that prosecutors deliberately excluded qualified black jurors from jury service in Robinson’s case, and said there was evidence this was happening in courts throughout the state.
Robinson’s case was the first to be heard under North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act, a 2009 law that allows prisoners facing execution and capital murder defendants to present evidence of racial bias, including statistics, in court.
Weeks' ruling is expected to be the first of many involving condemned North Carolina inmates. Those who win their claims can have their sentences converted to life in prison without parole. The Racial Justice Act cannot be used to set anyone free.
Robinson, 38, was sentenced to death for murdering 17-year-old Erik Torbblom in 1991 during a robbery. The jury that sent him to death row him had nine whites, two blacks and one American Indian.
It was later shown that prosecutors removed 50 percent of all qualified black jurors from serving on his jury, but removed only 14.8 percent of all other jurors.
In the Racial Justice Act hearing, Weeks heard testimony from experts who said race was a significant factor in jury selection in North Carolina as prosecutors decided to challenge and eliminate black jurors much more often than whites.
