Today the North Carolina House and Senate voted to override Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of SB 416, a bill that would effectively repeal the state’s historic Racial Justice Act by no longer allowing individuals to use statewide statistics in order to demonstrate racial bias in our state's capital punishment system.

In response, ACLU-NC Policy Director Sarah Preston offered the following comment:

“This is a sad day for justice and for North Carolina. By gutting the Racial Justice Act, our legislature has turned its back on the overwhelming evidence of racial bias in our state’s death penalty system. Politicians have decided they would rather sweep disturbing information under the rug than work to ensure that racial bias plays no role in North Carolina’s death penalty.”