Racial Justice Act case in Johnston County could affect every NC prisoner on death row

SMITHFIELD, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Superior Court judge is now considering a case that could impact every person sitting on death row in North Carolina.

Hassan Bacote's team of lawyers are challenging his death sentence. He's a Black man who was sentenced to death in Johnston County by a majority-white jury in 2009.

That same year, the Racial Justice Act was passed. The law allows capital defendants to challenge their death sentence on the basis that race played a significant factor in decisions to seek or impose the death penalty.

Fifteen years later, the court is now looking at whether race played a role in Bacote being sentenced to death.

"This is a big deal. The issue of who gets the death penalty, of who sits in the room that decides who gets the death penalty is an issue that is roiled this nation since -- you pick the date," ACLU Senior Counsel Henderson Hill said during closing arguments.

The ACLU said during Bacote's case, the prosecution removed Black jurors three times more often than white jurors.

"White jurors with this same perspective are seated in the box; Black jurors with that same background get shown the door," Hill said.

The NAACP said Bacote's white counterparts had a greater chance of being spared in sentencing.

"During the relevant time period for this case, 100% of Black individuals who are capitally prosecuted were sentenced to death, and if you were white, you had greater than 50% chance of getting a life sentence," said Ashley Burrell from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Lawyers representing the State are refuting those claims.

North Carolina Department of Justice Attorney Jonathan Babb, citing census data, said more white people were living in Johnston County at the time of the trial and the selected jurors were an accurate representation of the demographics.

"The state does not condone or defend some of the notes that were displayed by the defense," said Babb.

The verdict in this case could ultimately impact 135 people on death row right now.