Race still determines who sits on capital juries in North Carolina. Our overwhelmingly white juries are more likely to convict the wrong people and hand down unequal punishments.
Get the Facts:
- In N.C. capital trials, prosecutors reject qualified black jurors at more than twice the rate of white jurors.
- About 20 percent of North Carolina’s approximately 150 death row inmates were sentenced by all-white juries.
- Nearly half of death row inmates were sentenced by juries that included no more than a single person of color.
- Nine innocent people have been sentenced to death in North Carolina and later exonerated. Eight of them were people of color.