Support for RJA

The NC Racial Justice Act is supported and endorsed by over 80 Organizations across North Carolina, including:

The North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium and all Coalition Partners :

ACORN

ACLU of North Carolina

ACLU Capital Punishment Project

Amnesty International

Capital Restorative Justice Project

Carolina Justice Policy Center

Center for Death Penalty Litigation

Charlotte Coalition for a Moratorium

Common Sense Foundation

Fair Trial Initiative

Franciscan Coalition for Justice and Peace

Gaston Coalition for a Moratorium Now

HKonJ Coalition

Murder Victim Families for Reconciliation

NAACP-North Carolina

National Assoc. of Social Workers-NC

North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers

NC Association of Women Attorneys

North Carolina Black Leadership Caucus

North Carolina Council of Churches

North Carolina League of Women Voters

People of Faith Against the Death Penalty

Western Carolinians for Criminal Justice

Western North Carolina Coalition for a Moratorium

Christians for United Community -- Asheville

The Urban News

The Asheville Friends Peace and Earth Committee

The Ethical Society of Asheville

Unitarian Universalist Church of Asheville Human Rights Team

First Congregational United Church of Christ

Well over 800 NC based Clergymen have endorsed the Interfaith letter in support of the NC Racial Justice Act created by PFADP

Excerpts from the letter

To our sisters and brothers in North Carolina,

The common principles of our faith traditions compel us to speak with one voice and with urgency to the citizens and leaders of our state. We support this legislation out of a deep concern over the documented significant and persistent role that racial bias appears to play in deciding who is sentenced to die in North Carolina and who is not.

We have carefully considered the widely reported and compelling evidence of how race affects the death penalty in our state and elsewhere throughout the nation. It is deeply troubling to us that a defendant charged with murdering a white person appears to be more than three times more likely to receive a death sentence in North Carolina than those with non-white victims, according to a study by researchers at the University of North Carolina. Sixty-one percent of people on death row are minority. Stories of African-American citizens routinely being excluded from juries in capital cases, of NC prosecutors wearing lapel pins in the shape of a noose, and of jurors using racial epithets to argue for death sentences should cause all people of faith and good will in our state to discern how we can deal with the violence on our streets and in our homes without resorting to historic or institutional biases of any kind.

The great state of North Carolina cannot afford to be impatient and imprudent when it comes to the lives of any of its citizens, even those accused of committing acts inflicting great harm. Human life is at stake. Morally, we must act with clarity and caution in the practice of the death penalty. The NC Racial Justice Act offers a prudent and morally justifiable measure to improve our criminal justice system.