Trending Topics

NC death penalty loophole gives killers wiggle room

A poorly written discriminatory sentencing law is creating the problem

News & Record

RALEIGH, N.C. — Lesley Eugene Warren is a white serial killer whose victims were all young white women. The last was Katherine Johnson of High Point, whom he strangled in July 1990. He left her body in the trunk of a car in a downtown parking garage.

Warren is on North Carolina’s death row for the murders of Johnson and Jayme Hurley of Asheville. He confessed to killing other women in New York and South Carolina.

The 42-year-old Warren returned to the news this week as one of 147 death row inmates filing motions for relief under North Carolina’s 2009 Racial Justice Act, which was meant to protect defendants from discriminatory sentencing. As bizarre as it sounds, Warren probably has a valid claim under this poorly written law.

The RJA lets defendants present “statistical evidence” showing that death sentences were imposed “significantly more frequently” for capital crimes committed against persons of one race as opposed to another.

This statistical evidence exists. A recent study found that, when the victim is white, the offender is 2.6 times more likely to get the death penalty in North Carolina. Previous reviews have come up with similar findings. Under the law, that alone can count as sufficient proof that a murderer like Warren, whose victims were white, suffered a racial injustice and should be resentenced to life in prison without parole.

There can be little doubt that racial bias has produced unfair outcomes in court, especially many years ago. Any attempt to remedy injustices is welcome. But this law sets a standard of proof so easy to meet that it provides a death-penalty dodge for some of the state’s worst murderers who in no way should be considered victims of racial discrimination. It doesn’t take into consideration the actual facts of a particular case - not even the fact that a defendant was a serial killer drifting from one victim to the next.

With 147 inmates seeking to take advantage of the law’s leniency, state courts will be tied up in hearings where arguments will focus on statistics rather than the gruesome details of the crimes themselves. In the end, whether they really deserve a break or not, dozens of murderers will be removed from death row.

There’s an easier way to get there. Gov. Bev Perdue, who signed and strongly supported the Racial Justice Act, can commute the sentences of all 159 death row inmates to life in prison without parole. Then the legislature can eliminate capital punishment, assuring that no one else will be sentenced to death. That will be a more honest approach to the same end.

There may be marginal public support for the death penalty, but North Carolina juries recommend it infrequently, and it’s been four years since the last execution. It’s outdated, inconsistently administered and prone to irreversible errors. The Racial Justice Act ties it into tighter knots than ever. It should be ended.

Lesley Warren shouldn’t be let off death row unless everyone is.

Copyright 2010 News & Record

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU