USA - North Carolina

USA - North Carolina. Hasson Bacote's death sentence overturned ‘on racial grounds’

February 7, 2025:

February 7, 2025 - North Carolina. Hasson Bacote's death sentence overturned ‘on racial grounds’
Other cases may follow.
On February 7, 2025, Johnston County Superior Court Judge Wayland Sermons ruled “race was a significant factor” in both jury selection and the decision to impose death in the case of Hasson Bacote and granted relief for Mr. Bacote from his death sentence under the provisions of North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act (RJA). Judge Sermons also found racial discrimination tainted all death sentences in Johnston County and neighboring Harnett and Lee Counties, potentially affecting the outcomes of other pending RJA claims.
Mr. Bacote, a Black man sentenced to death in 2009, brought a challenge to his conviction under the RJA in 2010, arguing racial bias influenced the jury selection in his case and in all other death penalty cases throughout North Carolina. Attorneys for Mr. Bacote, which included the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, presented statistical and other evidence during a 2-week hearing early last year pointing to a pattern of clear and persistent racial bias in jury selection at the county and state level. In his ruling, Judge Sermons said the evidence showed that "prosecutors struck Black venire members at vastly disproportionate rates compared to venire members of other races” in death penalty cases in Johnston County, where Mr. Bacote was tried, as well as in Lee and Harnett Counties, and that, "race was a significant factor” in those decisions. Judge Sermons also found that “race was the basis of the decision to impose a death sentence on Mr. Bacote.”
Judge Sermons said he was persuaded that the statistical disparities presented at the hearing around jury selection "hold true” even when taking into account the reasons to strike jurors most frequently cited by prosecutors, including: a juror’s opinion about the death penalty; any possible criminal background a juror might have; as well as a juror’s employment, marital status, and the hardship they might face if forced to serve duty. Other evidence presented at the hearing included detailed testimony about patterns of racial bias in the administration of North Carolina’s death penalty from statisticians, social scientists, historians, and legal scholars.
North Carolina’s RJA was passed in 2009, allowing individuals sentenced to death to challenge their sentences based on the role race played in their sentencing and jury selection. Individuals who could prove their sentencing was prejudiced by racial bias would be resentenced to life in prison without the opportunity for parole. In 2013, the RJA was repealed under Governor Pat McCrory, but the state Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that prisoners who had already filed claims were entitled to hearings. Mr. Bacote’s case is the first such case to be heard after the 2020 state Supreme Court ruling.
The ruling comes on the heels of North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper’s historic grant of clemency to 15 people on the state’s death row at the end of 2024, including Mr. Bacote. According to Mr. Bacote’s legal team, Judge Sermons’ decision will not affect his sentence because he has already been resentenced to life without parole, but the ruling does have the potential to impact the 121 people remaining on North Carolina’s death row because of the breadth of its findings.
Judge Sermons specifically cited the behavior of prosecutor Greg Butler, the prosecutor in Mr. Bacote’s case and many other cases, noting that he, as a rule, "struck qualified Black venire members at a rate 3.48 times higher than the rate for all others.” Judge Sermons also noted Mr. Butler referred to Mr. Bacote as a "thug, cold-hearted and without remorse” during the trial, words that Mr. Butler himself admitted under oath have racial connotations. Judge Sermons also cited Mr. Butler for referring to Black defendants in other death cases he was prosecuting in derogatory terms including “piece of trash” and "predators of the African plain.”

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/judge-finds-race-plays-a-significant-role-in-death-sentences-in-three-north-carolina-counties