11 June 202015 November 2022 4WardEverUK

North Carolina Supreme Court rules on Racial Justice Act hearings

source: TIME News
published: 5 June 2020

In a sweeping decision released Friday, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that over 100 death row inmates have the opportunity to prove racism affected their sentences because they had filed a claim under the state’s Racial Justice Act (RJA) before it was repealed in 2013. If the defendants win their hearings, they’ll be re-sentenced to life without parole.

The ruling comes after years of legislative and legal proceedings over the RJA. Passed in 2009, the Act allowed North Carolina death row inmates to be re-sentenced to life without parole if they could prove race played a significant factor in their death sentence.

25 February 202015 November 2022 4WardEverUK

The Supreme Court announces it will not take up Rodney Reed’s appeal

all credits: The Union Journal
published: 25 February 2020

Rodney Reed was punished to fatality greater than 20 years ago for the attack, rape and also strangling of 19- year-old StaceyStites But his lawyers with the Innocence Project claim they have proof that might vindicate him.

Reed’s death penalty is presently on hold as a result of different state process.

Writing individually, Justice Sonia Sotomayor kept in mind that Reed has “presented a substantial body of evidence” that she claimed “if true” calls into question the “veracity of scientific validity of the evidence.” Lower courts are still thinking about different cases, Sotomayor claimed, including that the court’s activity on Monday ought to not “close the door” on future evaluation of the situation.

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21 December 2019 4WardEverUK

Voices from the criminal injustice system : ‘I am Troy Davis’

originally by: Workers World
published: 18 December 2019

A sold-out crowd at Rattlesticks Theater in the West Village on Dec. 8 heard readings from the book “I Am Troy Davis,” which features the stories of dozens of people whose lives have been cruelly affected by the state and its racist criminal injustice system.

Troy Davis, an African-American man accused of killing a cop, was executed in Georgia on Sept. 21, 2011, despite seven of nine witnesses recanting their trial testimony and a mountain of uncovered evidence proving his innocence.

The book was written by Davis’ sister, Martina Davis Correia, and Jen Marlow. Correia, who died after a long battle with cancer, fought with every fiber of her body over several decades to prove her brother’s innocence and to stop his execution.

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