The Militant - June 4, 2001 -- NAACP in North Carolina calls for clemency in death penalty case

Vol.65/No.22 June 4, 2001

NAACP in North Carolina calls for clemency in death penalty case

BY CONNIE ALLEN
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina--"We implore Gov. Mike Easley to do something. In this case we have proof that race was discussed by the jury. We cannot delay on this important issue. justice delayed will be justice denied," said C. Renee Jarrett for the North Carolina NAACP at a press conference May 14 to demand clemency for Robert Bacon. Jarrett was joined by Charlotte area ministers, the Charlotte Coalition for a Moratorium Now, and James Ferguson II, president of North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers.

"The case of Robert Bacon is another dramatic illustration of just how deeply flawed the North Carolina death penalty apparatus is. Mr. Bacon's case highlights and illustrates the pernicious role that race plays in determining who lives and who dies," said Ferguson's statement.

Robert Bacon, a Black man, was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1987 murder of his girlfriend's husband. Bonnie Clark, who is white and Bacon's codefendant, was found guilty of murder in a separate trial for instigating and planning the killing of her husband. She was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Bacon was scheduled to be executed May 18. On May 10, Pamela Smith, a juror in a 1991 resentencing trial, said in an affidavit that racial bias contributed to the sentencing. "Some jurors felt it was wrong for a Black man to date a white woman," she said. "Jurors also felt that Black people commit more crime and that it is typical of Blacks to be involved in crime.... Some jurors were adamant in their feeling that Bacon was a Black man and 'he deserved what he got.'"

In a related development, attorneys for North Carolina death row prisoners filed a class-action lawsuit May 11 contending it is illegal to execute the prisoners because of the governor's role in defending death sentences for these individuals during his two terms as attorney general. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Bacon and two others and will cover most of the 219 people on North Carolina's death row.

The North Carolina Supreme Court May 17 postponed Bacon's execution and announced that it would hear arguments in the class-action suit June 7.

This battle is another step in the mounting fight to stop the executions in North Carolina. At the May 14 press conference, Ferguson explained that the coalition is calling for a two-year moratorium to allow for those who believe the death penalty is inherently racist to present their evidence. He pointed to a new study by teachers at the University of North Carolina confirming "what Mr. Bacon's case illustrates: race continues to be a major aggravating factor in the imposition of the death penalty in North Carolina, as in the rest of the nation."

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