State lawmakers will try to override governor's veto

RALEIGH (AP) — When the Republican-led Legislature considers Wednesday whether to cancel Gov. Beverly Perdue’s veto and scrap the Racial Justice Act, the outcome of the override session will depend again on whether a handful of the governor’s fellow Democrats side with the GOP.

Perdue called the General Assembly back to work for an afternoon session three weeks after she blocked enactment of legislation that would essentially repeal most of the 2009 law.

The Racial Justice Act gave death-row inmates a new way to argue racial discrimination was a significant factor in determining their sentences. A judge who agreed could reduce a death sentence to life in prison without parole.

Republicans opposed the law in 2009 and voted to eliminate features that include a new hearing process and the use of statistics by death-row prisoners or people who face capital murder trials. Perdue vetoed the bill, saying the death penalty must be fairly meted out.

Three-fifths of the legislators present and voting in both the House and Senate must vote to override Perdue’s veto for the repeal to be carried out.

With other vetoes issued by Perdue in 2011, overrides largely have rested upon the ability of House Republicans, who don’t have a veto-proof majority, to persuade at least four House Democrats to join them.

House Majority Leader Paul Stam, R-Wake, said Republican leaders have been in touch with about eight Democrats who they hope will change their votes from June, when the House approved the repeal along party lines.

“We’re going to give it to try,” Stam said Tuesday in an interview. He added, “We’re hopeful.”

The Senate has a veto-proof Republican majority and would vote first on an override. Senators agreed to give final approval to the repeal in November after hard lobbying by local prosecutors who said the law was being abused. The prosecutors pointed out nearly all of the 158 prisoners now on death row filed papers seeking relief, even in cases where white defendants were sentenced by white juries for killing white victims. The DAs also said statistics could be misused and could lead to back-door ban on executions.

Civil rights and criminal justice reform advocates said the 2009 law, the second of its kind in the nation, is not about ending the death penalty but providing a judicial remedy for discrimination based on skin color in the most serious punishment the state can carry out.

Using statistics is a fair way to gauge systemic problems in the judicial system, said the Rev. William Barber, state chapter president for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“I hope that right-thinking people, even right-thinking Republicans, will come over and will sustain the governor’s veto,” Barber said Tuesday. “This law is progressive. It’s necessary. It’s a model for the nation. We’re trying to right the wrongful and racial application of the death penalty and all of us should be for that.”

Jeff Hunt, district attorney for three western counties and a congressional candidate, urged all General Assembly members to vote to override, saying in a release that “raw statistical racial percentages ... do not belong in our criminal court system.”

The two sides on the Racial Justice Act also disagree on whether prisoners sentenced to death for crimes committed before October 1994 potentially could be released on parole because a sentence of life in prison without parole didn’t exist at the time.

Rep. Jim Crawford of Granville County, one of five House Democrats who voted for the Republican budget despite Perdue’s objection and veto, said he doesn’t know how he’ll vote Wednesday if the override on the Racial Justice Act repeal comes to the floor.

Crawford, who was recently elevated to a budget committee chairmanship by GOP House Speaker Thom Tillis, said many of his constituents, particularly black voters, want to keep the 2009 law as it is. But the DAs have raised legitimate questions, too, he said.

“I’ve always tried to represent my people,” said Crawford, who is white and running for re-election. “I have very mixed emotions about the bill.”

The state constitution required Perdue to call the Legislature back to session to reconsider the bill only. Parliamentary maneuvers would be needed should Republican lawmakers want to do more — such as take up compromise legislation on the Racial Justice Act or even consider overrides of other 2011 vetoes. One previously vetoed bill would require voters to show picture identification before voting.

Jordan Shaw, a Tillis spokesman, said there were no plans Tuesday to consider anything beyond Perdue’s latest veto.

The outcome of Wednesday’s override vote also could depend on how many lawmakers attend the session. Three representatives and one senator had filed paperwork Tuesday for excused absences, according to the offices of the House and Senate clerk.