USA - North Carolina. Death penalty bill passes committee

Death penalty bill passes committee. The Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill Tuesday morning that its sponsor says would lift a de facto death penalty moratorium in North Carolina, in part by sweeping away the last remnants of the Racial Justice Act. Committee Chairman Buck Newton called a for a show of hands, which appeared to show the measure passing along party lines. Senate Bill 306 now heads to the Senate floor for debate, most likely on Thursday. It would then go to the House. "This bill is not about whether our state should have a death penalty. We have it," said Sen. Thom Goolsby, R-New Hanover, the bill's sponsor. The Racial Justice Act was passed in 2009. It allows death row inmates to challenge their sentence, but not their convictions, by using statistical evidence of bias. Lawmakers pared back the act during the last legislative session, but pieces of the statute remain, and there are more than 100 appeals pending on the bill. Goolsby's bill would wipe out any claims that haven't been heard in court. Sen. Josh Stein, D-Wake, questioned how the state could give death row prisoners a right of appeal and then snatch it back. "This is going to create a whole new wave of litigation and cost to the state," he said. A staffer for the committee suggested the state wasn't taking away a right but merely doing away with a procedure that could be used to lessen someone's punishment. But the staffer acknowledged the issue would likely be challenged in court.