The Senate voted 25-18 to concur in the House version of SB 461 Racial Justice Act today. The Racial Justice Act will allow a capital defendant to challenge his or her sentence of death if s/he can prove that race played a substantial role in the sentence or the prosecutor's decision to seek death. Importantly, the bill would allow the use of statistical evidence to prove racial discrimination which is currently not allowed. The Senate version of the bill prevented state-wide statistics from being used in favor of statistics for the judicial districts. The Senate version also included an amendment to restart executions. The House version which was sent to the Governor's desk this evening removed the amendment and restored the state-wide statistics provision. This bill was introduced in 2007 as well and the ACLU-NC and North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium have worked tirelessly over the last three years to get the bill passed. Of course, this would not have been possible without the support of the bill sponsors Senator McKissick and Representatives Womble and Parmon.

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