A moratorium bill was introduced by Sen

A moratorium bill was introduced by Sen. Frank Ballance (D-Warrenton). The bill (SB 172) calls for a moratorium on executions while a study of the fairness of capital punishment is completed and presented to the General Assembly in 2003. Also introduced were on Feb. 15th were the following bills: Racial Justice Act (HB 140, SB 171) that would prohibit the imposition of the death penalty based on race, and would allow a judge to find whether race was the primary reason prosecutors decided to seek the death penalty against a defendant. Innocence Protection Act (SB 164) that would make DNA testing a right of those incarcerated or facing trial. The bill would provide DNA samples from a crime scene to defense lawyers to they could compare the samples with those from the state's DNA database. (texts: http://www.ncga.state.nc.us)