Closing arguments in Hasson Bacote’s North Carolina racial justice act hearing conclude

This article was published in the Amicus ALJ newsletter.

Last month, the closing arguments in the case of North Carolina v. Hasson Bacote concluded. The landmark lawsuit surrounded racial bias in jury selection and was brought under the state’s Racial Justice Act (RJA), which has since been repealed. Its findings could impact the sentences of more than 100 death row inmates in North Carolina.  

Hasson Bacote, a Black man sentenced to death in 2009, filed a lawsuit in 2010, arguing that racial bias affected not only his jury selection but those of others throughout the state. Attorneys for Bacote presented evidence demonstrating that racial bias has historically limited people of color from serving on capital juries. As a result, Black men in North Carolina, including Bacote, received a disproportionate number of extreme sentences. 

Bacote was originally convicted and sentenced to death at age 21 for shooting and killing an 18-year-old in a robbery.  He was sentenced by a nearly all-white jury, including ten white and two black members.  

Henderson Hill, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, represented Bacote during the 2024 hearing. He said that white jurors get shown to the jury box, but "Black jurors with the same background get shown the door."  

Bacote’s hearing began this past February in Johnston County. Historians, statisticians, and other researchers illustrated that North Carolina prosecutors commonly racially discriminated in their selection of jury members. Bacote’s attorneys underlined the racial discrimination in juries in Johnston County against Black defendants. Further, the attorneys argued North Carolina’s current practice of the death penalty is linked to the state’s history of racial violence.  

Gretchen M. Engel, the executive director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation said the evidence “could not be more stark.”i 

 “Black citizens have been denied their right to a voice in the jury box and prosecutors have referred to Black defendants as ‘thugs’ and ‘predators of the African plain.’”ii 

The RJA was passed by the state legislature in 2009, permitting death row inmates to challenge their sentences if they could prove their sentencing was prejudiced by racial bias. If successful, plaintiffs would be resentenced to life in prison without the opportunity for parole. In 2013, the RJA was repealed, but the state Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that prisoners who had previously filed claims prior to the repeal were entitled to hearings. Bacote’s case is the first case to be heard following the 2020 ruling. 

Cassandra Stubbs, director of the ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project, said she hopes the case will “turn the page” on a shameful chapter of North Carolina’s history.iii 

 “[T]he outcome of this case will not just determine if Hasson Bacote’s life is spared, but if North Carolina will continue to condone systemic racial injustice in its courts and criminal legal system.”iv