North Carolina should repeal the death penalty because it is expensive, ineffective, and racially biased, an Appalachian State University professor says in a new study, reports the Winston-Salem (NC) Journal. Matthew Robinson, a professor of government and justice studies, analyzed data from more than 20 studies.
Robinson said the studies he looked at were remarkably consistent in their conclusions — that the death penalty doesn’t deter crime, is racially biased, and has led to people being wrongfully convicted. The study comes two weeks after Republicans proposed to ify the 2009 Racial Justice Act. The law allows a death row inmate or a defendant facing the death penalty to use statistics and other evidence to prove that racial bias was a “significant factor” in his sentence or in prosecutors’ decision to pursue the death penalty.