RALEIGH, N.C. AP – North Carolina’s governor on Wednesday halted a Republican effort to dismantle a law that gives death row inmates a new way to argue that racial bias influenced their sentences.
Gov. Beverly Perdue vetoed a bill that would have essentially repealed 2009′s Racial Justice Act, which was designed to address concerns that race has played a recurring role in who is sentenced to death. Afterward, the Democratic governor said she supports capital punishment but that it must be applied fairly. Critics accused her of trying to create a back-door ban on executions.
