North Carolina death row prisoners to argue sentences tainted by race
North Carolina's highest court is to hear from six death row inmates who say a repealed law on race and capital punishment should still let them be resentenced life without parole.
The state Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Monday and Tuesday in the cases of four death row inmates who briefly were resentenced to life without parole when legislators approved the Racial Justice Act in 2009. Legislators repealed the law in 2013.
Justices also are to hear from attorneys for two other death row prisoners whose Racial Justice Act claims weren't decided before the law's repeal.
Under the act, condemned men and women could seek a life sentence by using statistics to show that race tainted their trials.
Of the 142 people on North Carolina's death row, about 36% are white.